New Year: CalCPA Kicks Off Another Year of Advocacy.

• Author: Fox, Jason

Later this month, CalCPA will launch another year of advocacy on behalf of its members with a Legislative Summit that brings together CalCPA leaders with leaders in the public policy space to discuss a variety of issues facing California and the profession.

Some of the discussion will focus on specific profession issues like licensure, tax and emerging service areas such as envinronment, social and corporate governance reporting. Other topics will focus on general business climate issues and how CPAs can be a part of solutions to some of California's challenges.

CalCPA members also will have the opportunity to get back to in-person meetings with legislators and their staff. As was outlined in last month's article, nearly one-third of the legislators are new to their position. Meetings early in the legislative calendar are a great way to establish a positive relationship before complex policy-proposals start to lake center stage.

Keep an eye out for more information about this event and the impact it has on CalCPA's advocacy efforts.

Bills, Bills, Bills

January and February bring the annual window for legislators to introduce new legislative proposals. And if things track like they have in years past, we will see nearly 1,000 Assembly and Senate bills introduced by the end of February.

Some of these will be extensive new proposals or adjustments to various state statues, some will be necessary adjustments to update codes or codify new processes, and some of these will be vague "spot bills" that serve as place holders for more substantive amendments later in the legislative session.

CalCPA's government relations team will be closely reviewing these proposals for anything that might be of concern or of interest to the profession. Once flagged, we will work with CalCPA member leaders to review and develop a course of action. Often the first step is an outreach to the author of the bill to find out more about the intent of their proposal and have a conversation about the profession and offer additional input and perspective that can help build on the bill idea and avoid any troublesome unintended consequences.

Additional involvement may include formal comment letters to legislative policy committees and other stakeholders with similar interests in a particular bill.

No matter the level of engagement, being attentive and at the table in a meaningful way is critical to positively influencing legislative proposals. This is just part of the value...