In a way addressing the general economy, Governor Carcieri’s stimulus plan will surely help small businesses to get started and, perhaps more directly, to keep going, and with the bulk of the effort occurring beyond the scope of the government:

Overall, the plan is intended to provide more than $200 million in new sources of capital for small businesses that are struggling amid a global economic downturn and rising unemployment.
“These are tough times,” Carcieri told nearly 100 business and government leaders, and others, at a packed State House meeting room yesterday.
And small businesses — which represent 90 percent of all businesses in Rhode Island and employ 25 percent of the work force — are being squeezed, Carcieri said.
Together, the package’s provisions will encourage banks, credit unions and other lenders to make more money available to small businesses, Hayward said. “It’s critical that we keep our lenders in the game,” he said.

However, looking at Rhode Island’s situation in specific, I wonder about the efficacy of spurring businesses in a state that isn’t attractive for their continued operations.