2024 General Assembly reflections
With so much turnover in the Virginia General Assembly, this year’s session proved … interesting.
June 4, 2024
By Emily Walker, CAE
The 2024 session of the Virginia General Assembly has come and gone, having adjourned this past weekend as scheduled. I knew going in that it had the potential to be challenging and chaotic. I expected it. How could it not be given the generational turnover of legislators? But nothing could've truly prepared me for the reality.
As anticipated, the session started out slowly with legislators taking their oaths of office and getting settled in the new General Assembly building. It took almost a full week for committees to even start bill hearings. During that time, I was incredibly thankful our 2023 rolling income tax conformity initiative was successful. For the first time in two decades, we didn't have an emergency conformity bill to push for this year. And if there had been one, I'm not confident legislators would've addressed it as quickly as necessary! I had assumed once everyone settled in, things would start to move along in "normal" fashion. Turns out, that was never going to be the case this session.
The VSCPA's legislative agenda was intentionally limited this year. We had what was supposed to be a simple technical fix to rolling conformity and a collaborative bill we worked on in conjunction with the Virginia Board of Accountancy (VBOA) and the Auditor of Public Accounts. Otherwise, we mostly played defense, working on bills that had unintended consequences for CPAs as they were introduced, and supporting a handful of tax policy bills.
The Senate VBOA bill got moving first, with a relatively easy path — passing both the committee and full Senate unanimously. The House bill took a little longer to start moving, but once it got through the initial bill hearing it was smooth sailing. The only hiccup came when the House bill moved to the Senate and a few senators unexpectedly voted against it after having voted in favor of the identical Senate bill earlier. Even so, the bills passed overwhelmingly and now just await the governor's approval.
There is a saying in the General Assembly that there is no such thing as an “easy bill.” In reality, there are many easy bills. The problem is that you don’t know that until session has adjourned, and the bill has been signed by the governor.
Case in point, the technical fix for rolling conformity went unexpectedly off the rails despite our expectation it would be an “easy bill.” What were supposed to be simple bills clarifying how the fiscal impact caps were applied proved too confusing for some lawmakers. While challenging to explain, this year’s bill had no fiscal impact and rolling conformity passed unanimously in 2023. We hoped that would be enough, along with bipartisan patrons, to ensure easy passage. Unfortunately, that was far from the case.
Thanks to VSCPA member Del. Joe McNamara, CPA, the House bill passed unanimously. The Senate, not so much. A small subcommittee of Senate Finance and Appropriations struggled to understand the bill and carried it over to 2025 out of concern passage could create a potential $75 million hole in the already tight budget. In good news, however, the Virginia Department of Taxation (TAX) has taken another look at last year's bill and determined it can be interpreted the way our legislation sought to clarify. With this in mind, we made a calculated decision to let the Senate carry over Del. McNamara’s bill as well. While we got the outcome we wanted, it was not through the path we expected.
What happened with rolling conformity is representative of what occurred with many bills this year. Advocacy groups and lobbyists often use the months leading up to a legislative session to meet with legislators, educate them on issues, and build support and momentum going into the legislative session. That just wasn't an option due to the election heading into this session. With so many new legislators, new leadership, and late committee assignments, the ability to work in advance of session was extremely limited. It’s clear going forward that we need to help rebuild institutional knowledge and forge new relationships with legislators on key committees.
The experience with rolling conformity aside, I still consider the 2024 General Assembly a successful legislative session for the VSCPA. In addition to passage of the VBOA bill, we successfully advocated for an 11th-hour amendment to the cannabis bills to create limited immunity at the state level for CPAs and CPA firms choosing to provide financial services to cannabis-related businesses. Although we do not expect the governor to sign the cannabis bills, it was an important amendment for CPAs and CPA firms as future efforts will be based off the bills that have passed the General Assembly this year. We also engaged in the debate around a proposed ban on non-competes in employment and weighed in on tax policy issues aligned with guiding principles of state tax policy. Lastly, we supported a budget amendment to provide funding for TAX to begin the process of replacing its outdated revenue management system.
We still have a lot of work to do to raise awareness of the accounting profession’s issues with current legislators. We have great relationships with several seasoned legislators in the House, but we have a long way to go in the Senate. First and foremost, we need champions in the Senate. And this is where you come in! We need members to cultivate relationships with their legislators between now and the start of the 2025 General Assembly. You can start by telling us who you already know or are willing to build a relationship with. Are any current legislators your clients or personal friends? Did you work on someone's campaign? Even if you aren't a constituent, these relationships can make all the difference on issues important to the profession.
I am so privileged to represent all of you and this profession. Thank you for trusting me to be your advocate! As always, please reach out if I, or the VSCPA, can be of assistance.
Emily Walker, CAE, VSCPA vice president, advocacy and pipeline, oversees and provides strategic direction for VSCPA government affairs programs, including legislative and regulatory activities, grassroots initiatives, and the VSCPA Political Action Committee (PAC). She also oversees the peer review program and CPA pipeline activities. Emily joined the VSCPA in 2003 and spends her time outside of work rooting for her high school twins on the soccer and lacrosse fields.