From the Legislative Front

By Denise M. Patterson, CPA

The Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee passed Senate Bill 691 April 27. SB 691 provides for a revision of the existing law regarding licensure. Under the bill, candidates for licensure would require proof of completion of a minimum of 150 semester units prior to licensure and one year of qualifying experience (in addition to a baccalaureate degree and successful completion of the CPA Exam). The current Pathway 1 (completion of a baccalaureate degree with completion of at least 24 semester units in accounting and 24 semester units in business related subjects, board exam passage, and two years of qualifying experience) would be eliminated.

Voting in favor of the bill were committee members Aanestad, Correa, Florez, Oropeza, Walters, Wyland and Yee. Three members—Corbett, McLeod and Romero—did not vote.

In addition to a number of CalCPA members, approximately 20 students and candidates attended the hearing to express their support of the bill. SB 691 will next go to the Senate Appropriations Committee. A date for this next hearing is not yet known. If the bill clears that committee, it would then go to the floor of the Senate.

You can find more information SB 691 on the CalCPA website. If you would like to send a letter in support of this legislation, please contact Kay Coffin for a sample letter, as well as the address to which the letter should be directed.

In other news, be sure to register for CalCPA’s 100th anniversary gala celebration. The event will take place Friday, June 19, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. In addition to dinner and dancing, the evening will include a reception and silent.

This is my final President’s Message. Next month, our new officers will take the reins of the chapter. I wish our incoming officers great success! Sheryl Yardumian, Elaine Reule, Jodie Rolih and Laura Cullen will do a tremendous job for the Fresno Chapter.

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all who served as chapter officers and board members this past year: Sheryl Yardumian, Elaine Reule, Jodie Rolih, Laura Cullen, Tim Baker, Kristi Miller, Norman Wong, Paul Chen, Ron Hickok and Adrienne Cantrell. And a special thanks to Kay Coffin for keeping chapter operations running so smoothly! It has been my utmost pleasure to work with this group of wonderful professionals. I also want to thank all the chapter members for their input and participation in the various meetings and events this past year. Your support and involvement in the chapter is incredibly generous. Thank you all!
— Denise M. Patterson, CPA (FL)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 11:13 am and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.