PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

VSCPA MEMBERS >>

A body of experts

For the second consecutive

year, the VSCPA and Virginia Business magazine partnered to host a panel discussion on the Society’s annual Virginia Economic Expectations Survey. Check out a breakdown of the survey results on page 9; further analysis appears in the November issue of Virginia Business. And if you’d like to hear discussion of the results from your fellow VSCPA members, visit vscpa.com/ EconExpectationsPanel for insights from members Jennifer Duff, CPA, of Management Stack in Salem; Mike Gracik, CPA, of Keiter in Glen Allen; James Haggard, CPA, of Dixon Hughes Goodman in Newport News; and John Renner, CPA, of Renner & Co. in Alexandria.

Those are just four of the economic experts among the VSCPA membership. The exact count is up to interpretation, but by our standard, we’d estimate that there are slightly more than 12,000 economic experts among VSCPA members. Yes, that’s all of you. You can quibble with that analysis, but even our student members are experts in training. The extensive education and training required to obtain the CPA license ensures that. (And we’d love to have your expertise included in next year’s survey, so be sure to participate!)

The measured, analytical approach of the CPA is evident in the responses to the survey. When asked to describe their economic outlook on the national economy for 2016, 93 percent answered “somewhat optimistic,” “balanced” or “somewhat pessimistic.” In other words, measured, qualified optimism or pessimism — the sky isn’t falling, nor is the economy riding a rocket ship to the moon. In a time when pundits and politicians alike are taking turns seeing who can craft the most outrageous take — we are heading into a presidential election year, after all — you can count on CPAs to sift through the noise and get to the meat of an issue. Along similar lines, respondents overwhelmingly indicated that political partisanship has a negative effect on our ability to solve problems. Seventy-nine percent said that partisanship at the federal and state levels is preventing the government from addressing urgent needs that affect businesses. And while two-thirds of respondents said that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was hurting the U.S. economy, 55 percent of respondents favored reforming the law instead of repealing it outright.

VSCPA members as a group aren’t interested in partisan politics. They’re focused on solving economic problems and helping their clients navigate existing and future conditions.

And no VSCPA member represents that attitude better than Virginia Sen. Walter Stosch, CPA (R-Henrico). Stosch is retiring from public service at the end of the year after a 33-year career that included lengthy stints as Senate Majority Leader and Senate Finance Committee chairman. You can read more about his illustrious career on page 24, but one quality in which Stosch took great pride was his statesmanship. During his political career, he was known for putting politics aside in order to pass legislation that was in the best interests of Virginia’s taxpayers and businesses.

When he announced his retirement, Michael Martz of the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted that Stosch was a leader in a “moderate Republican faction that often has aligned itself between Senate Democrats and an increasingly conservative Republican caucus on contentious policy issues,” and that he recently crossed party lines to advocate for Marketplace Virginia, an ultimately unsuccessful plan that would have used federal money from ACA taxes to buy private health insurance for uninsured Virginians. When he announced his retirement, Stosch bemoaned the polarization of politics in Virginia and nationwide, saying, “It makes compromise and simply getting things done more difficult but even more important.” That strikes me as good a summation of the CPA ethos as anything. When you see the CPA letters, you know that person has a professional duty to analyze facts in as fair and nonpartisan a way as possible. We can honor the careers of Walter Stosch and the CPAs who came before us by continuing that tradition. n

There are slightly more than 12,000 economic experts among VSCPA members. Yes, that’s all of you.

STEPHANIE PETERS, CAE, has served as president and CEO of the Virginia Society of CPAs since 2007.

speters@vscpa.com connect.vscpa.com/StephaniePeters @StephPeters

DISCLOSURES • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015 • HTTP://DISCLOSURES.VSCPA.COM 5