TMI Process Engineer Paula Goldstein explains the operation of the Senzimer ‘Z’ Mill behind her, as House Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino (D-Providence), left, and TMI President Al Lubrano listen. Taper rolls for the Z-Mill rest on the table in the foreground. Members of the House Finance Committee on Thursday were touring five Rhode Island manufacturers that are committed to the state and are prospering during difficult economic times. Times photo/Butch Adams

By JIM BARON

LINCOLN — Economists wring their hands about the woebegone condition of Rhode Island’s economy and seem to be at a loss about how to restore its vitality, but Al Lubrano says he has the answer.

“Jobs will fix the problem,” said Lubrano, CEO of Lincoln’s TMI, which makes materials used in high tech industries, and chairman of the Rhode Island Manufacturers’ Association. “The solution is job creation.”
Speaking to members of the House Finance Committee who spent all day Thursday travelling by bus to tour manufacturing plants in various parts of the state, Lubrano was upbeat about the Ocean State as a place to do business.
“There is no reason in the world that Rhode Island should not be in the top 10 on anybody’s list of places to bring a company, no reason,” Lubrano said during a discussion at his factory, the last of five stops on the legislative listening tour. “In my mind, of any of the New England states, Rhode Island should win hands down.”
Noting that Massachusetts was recently rated, along with Washington (state) and North Carolina, as one of the top three states to put a business in, Lubrano said, “We should be as good as Massachusetts.
The manufacturers were amazingly upbeat. They had some of the usual gripes about taxes and red tape and how some things could be done better, but they also gave the lawmakers an earful about how much the state has to offer and good opportunities that don’t get a lot of attention.
“I think the state of Rhode Island has something very unique because of its size,” said Jack Biddick of The Allied Group, a Cranston firm. “We have the ability to incubate new businesses. I don’t think we do enough,” in that area.
“We can make this a model of growth, so people who are over at Brown University who have great ideas, or URI or RIC. They are growing businesses and they want to stay here in Rhode Island.” He said Cambridge, Mass. does that to encourage life sciences businesses that were started at the universities there.
“I think we need something like that in Rhode Island,” Biddick said, suggesting that capital investments in incubator companies not be taxed.
Finance Committee Chairman Steven Costantino said it is a good thing for the lawmakers to get a close-up look at the people doing the work that makes the economy operate.
“We see these buildings, but we never know what’s going on inside them,” he said.
Costantino made it clear that he had understood some of the concerns businessmen had discussed on different stops of the tour.
“I know you have been very concerned about having a predictable tax policy going forward and you want to remain competitive,” he told the group. “After this recession, we want Rhode Island to be in a competitive position. I think I hear that you are concerned about some of the permitting issues you all have to go through and how long it takes to get something done and you have said you don’t want to go backwards with safety and environmental issues, but you want a permitting process that’s efficient, so that you know the answer quickly – time seems to be money in many of these instances.”
One big problem, said Robert Nangle of Meridian Printing, is that each city and town has different permitting process and regulations. Wastewater that could be dumped down a drain in Providence can’t be in Cranston.
“The cities and towns have to start coming together,” Nangle said.
Costantino wondered aloud whether there is something the General Assembly could do to standardize permitting by municipalities.
On a variety of matters, the chairman said, “We want to have more of an active role. I think we have to take action more than studying. We’ve studied the issues enough.”
But there is only so much that is in the power of the legislature, he cautioned.
Rhode Island, Costantino said, “is not going to be a Florida; it’s not going to be New Hampshire,” two states famous for low taxes. “The General Assembly can’t control your competitiveness with China, or Germany.”
Costantino said he is hoping to recruit the manufacturers as word-of-mouth advertisers for doing business in the state.
“We want to use you to bring other companies in here,” he said. “How do we use you to promoted what you’ve done, promote Rhode Island and be active in bringing companies globally or from other states.
Lubrano said he regularly receives calls from other states, or even from as far away as China, by localities trying to lure him and his company away. He wondered whether Rhode Island is doing that to bring other businesses here.
Costantino allowed that Rhode Island “needs to be more aggressive in selling the state,” both to keep and grow existing businesses and to pull some in from other places.
Lubrano said that currently, Rhode Island is in the bottom 25 percent in terms of competiveness relative to doing business in the state. Let’s look at getting into the top quartile. Let’s look at all the things we need to do to get into the top 25 percent. That’s reasonable. Let’s start there. Look at all the things in the state that make us not competitive with the top 25” and try to bring the state in line.
Costantino said Rhode Island must ask itself: “What are vital state services? Is an airport a state service? Is a port?”
He said Rhode Island has two ports that are underutilized and an airport not being allowed to expand.
“As long as everyone wants a port, but doesn’t want it in their back yard, we will be stifled with jobs in this state,” Costantino said.