HB 147-PUBLIC ACCOUNTING    3:49:38 PM CHAIR KITO announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 147, "An Act relating to the Board of Public Accountancy; relating to the licensure of public accountants; and relating to the practice of public accounting." 3:49:44 PM REPRESENTATIVE STEVE THOMPSON, Alaska State Legislature, presented HB 147 as prime sponsor. He paraphrased the sponsor statement [included in committee packet] which reads as follows [original punctuation provided]: SSHB 147 is a bill that updates the statutes in Title 8 (Business and Professions), Chapter 4 (Accountants). The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) provided the Alaska Board of Public Accountancy under the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development with a summary of areas where the Alaska statutes and regulations for public accountancy differ from the Uniform Accountancy Act or AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct. The proposed statute changes will align the Alaska statutes and regulations for public accountancy with these national organizations. Many of the changes in the bill are housekeeping items. Some changes expand existing language to provide more information or clarity, while other changes remove unnecessary language or condense it. REPRESENTATIVE THOMPSON mentioned that his wife is a certified public accountant (CPA) and chair of the Alaska CPA Legislative Committee. He underlined that neither he nor any member of the CPA community would benefit financially from the proposed bill. 3:52:11 PM KAREN BREWER-TARVER, Certified Public Accountant, Member, Alaska Board of Public Accountancy, answered questions in the hearing on HB 147. She said the board had worked with the Alaska Society of CPAs to make the changes. She added that none of the proposed changes are controversial 3:53:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE SULLIVAN-LEONARD asked for more information regarding the removal of language from statute. MS. BREWER-TARVER answered she thought Representative Sullivan- Leonard was referring to Section 3 of the proposed bill. She explained there are currently two ways to become licensed in the state as a CPA. She said a licensee could either pass an exam or present a license from another state. She added that currently in Alaska there is a requirement for four years of public accounting work. It was determined that this is more than what is asked for from those taking the CPA exam, and the change would reduce it to two years. 3:54:54 PM REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON asked Ms. Brewer-Tarver to explain what is going on with the test functions described in Section 5. MS. BREWER-TARVER said Section 5 is the confidential communications section. She said Section 6 was being added to include wording in the Uniform Accountancy Act outlining which regulatory agencies to which to submit work papers. 3:56:32 PM REPRESENTATIVE BIRCH asked whether a CPA designation is required for a large commercial enterprise for accounting procedures. MS. BREWER-TARVER answered the only reason a CPA license is needed is for test functions. 3:57:57 PM CHAIR KITO opened public testimony on HB 147. JEFF JOHNSON, Member, Public Accountancy Board, stated that he is employed by RJG CPA in Fairbanks, Alaska. He said that the fiscal note reflects the savings on postage due to the use of email. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON asked for the full title of the firm. MR. JOHNSON answered that it was the initials of the names of the members of the firm. 3:59:43 PM DONOVAN RULIEN, Alaska State Board of Accountancy, testified in support of HB 147. He explained the aim of the proposed bill is to clean up the language in the statute to bring it up to date. 4:00:30 PM CHAIR KITO said he would be leaving public testimony open on HB 147. CHAIR KITO held over HB 147.