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09/20/2018

Message from Beth -- September 20, 2018

First year of Regional PAC Events a success!

The ACEC Ohio PAC Trustees published a calendar of events in January 2018  which included hosting four PAC events around the State.  The idea was to allow all members to get involved and support the political advocacy efforts of the Council.  The regional PAC events hosted key elected officials or candidates and allowed our members to have conversations, ask questions and network. These events were held at a reasonable cost while supporting both the ACEC Ohio and ACEC PACs.  Special thank you to the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest Chapters for sponsoring the food at the events in their regions. A recap of the regional events:

PAC Kick-Off—February 2018, hosted Gubernatorial Candidate, Rich Cordray

NE PAC Event—April 2018, hosted 16thCongressional Candidate, Anthony Gonzalez

SE PAC Event –August 2018, hosted Congressman Steve Chabot

NW PAC Event-September 2018, hosted Lt. Gubernatorial Candidate, Jon Husted

Cordray 2.18 Gonzalez 4.18 18 SW PAC Attendees 1

The PAC is a key component of our advocacy efforts for the business of engineering.  Contributions to the ACEC Ohio PAC have allowed us to give our members opportunities to meet both Gubernatorial Candidates at committee meetings, PAC events and small, private roundtable discussions. In addition, the Council continues to build strong relationships with Ohio House and Ohio Senate Leadership as well as key legislative members that are supportive of our business interests.  By developing these relationships ACEC Ohio has introduced legislation to invalidate broad indemnification clauses in public authority contracts (HB 554), defeat a proposal to extend the state sales tax on professional services and allowed us to continue to fight off a PVC pipe preference bill which would legislate engineering judgement. 

On a National level, ACEC's key Congressional relationships developed through the ACEC PAC proved very advantageous during negotiations on the Comprehensive Tax Reform bill.  Without the advocacy efforts from ACEC, those engineering firms organized as “pass through” businesses would not have received a new 20% tax deduction.  In addition, the bill preserved cash accounting method for engineering firms and ensured no impact on ESOPs.

We are in the last quarter of the PAC calendar year and want to say THANK YOU to those members and companies who have already contributed.  To date 39-member companies have met their PAC goals. This is a critical election year in Ohio, we need your continued support.  The ACEC Ohio PAC Trustees will be reaching out to member companies who have not met their goal and ask for support in the next few weeks.  We appreciate your consideration and will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

September PAC

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

~ Beth

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