01/29/2018
Message from Beth--January 29, 2018
2018 Proves to be a Political Adventure
As 2018 kicks off, we extend a thank you to ACEC Ohio member firms who met their 2017 PAC Goals or contributed to the PACs. It was a successful year at the State level, fighting off a sales tax on professional services and PVC pipe preference bills in the legislature, dinners with legislative leadership, gaining momentum on transportation funding, and drafting an indemnification bill which will be introduced soon. In addition, at the Federal level, ACEC worked hard to cover all engineering firms in the tax reform bill, and continues to push infrastructure including FAA reauthorization, Safe drinking water and Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). As a thank you to those that helped achieve our success with the ACEC Ohio and ACEC PACs, we conducted a 2018 Government Affairs outlook webinar on January 19th. Steve Hall, VP of Government Affairs at ACEC and Kevin Futryk, Partner of Government Advantage Group both addressed the successes of 2017 and the political landscape for 2018. We will to continue to offer those members and firms who support the ACEC PACs events like this each year.
A successful association government affairs program is like the proverbial three-legged stool. One leg is an active and involved membership, the second is a respected and effective lobbyist and the third is a strong political action committee. This year, 2018, will prove to be an interesting year politically with a need for increased PAC dollars. Ohio has a gubernatorial election primary with 5 Democratic candidates and 2 Republican candidates, which will be narrowed down to a candidate for each party on May 8th. All statewide offices are open seats, with no incumbent running for re-election. In addition, all Ohio House seats are up for election with a Speaker of the House race already being battled internally and finally 17 Ohio Senate seats are on the ballot. This is why we have raised the ACEC Ohio PAC Goal to $55,000 to support candidates who are aware and helpful of the engineering business interests of our members.
By now, your company has received a request from the ACEC Ohio PAC Board of Trustees outlining our request for contributions this year. We hope that you will consider your goal and work to meet it as it is a critical year for our industry and Ohio. This year, we have events around the State to help you meet your goal, click here for more information. In addition, we have the PAC Kick-off Event on February 8, 2018 at Wolf Ridge Brewery with special guests Richard Cordray and Rick Smith.
We appreciate your support! Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
~Beth