Southern California TechVoice Forum Looks At Tech Issues Post-Election

A broad swath of topics was covered at the Southern California TechVoice Chapter meeting on December 14 in Newport Beach, CA. This post-election analysis and forum was co-hosted by CompTIA’s Southern California TechVoice partner, the Orange County Tech Alliance. I was privileged to participate in a panel with California state assemblyman Don Wagner and Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Political Science at the University of Southern California. Tim Jemal of Jemal Public Affairs ably moderated our discussion as we spelled out some of the takeaways for the tech industry at the federal and state level following the November election.

Those in attendance were advised to know their allies. Wagner noted that with a super majority for Democrats in the California legislature, it is vital to know which Democrats are pro-business and more attuned to industry issues. At the federal level, as we have noted previously, there are several members of the House of Representatives who have joined the House Republican leadership team and are considered to be “tech friendly.” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Co.) has agreed to head the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Bennet is one of several new, tech-savvy Democrats who are becoming more prominent in the Senate.

In California, there is concern among business groups that Democrats in the state legislature may try to overreach in light of their new powers to levy additional tax increases without a single Republican vote. Wagner and Schnur noted that Gov. Jerry Brown is perhaps the only person able to stop large tax increases sought by Democrats to address budget shortfalls that have plagued the state in recent years.

According to Wagner and Schnur, the legislature may seek additional revenue by maintaining a cap on property taxes for private homeowners under Proposition 13 but raising commercial property taxes. Both agreed that this “split roll” approach is a distinct possibility.

Schnur discussed the narrow passage of Proposition 30, which contained new sales and income taxes, ostensibly to support education. Proposition 30 was overwhelmingly opposed by organized business groups, and Schnur noted that the advertising for Proposition 30 led voters to believe that its passage would provide long-term stability to education funding, which he does not believe will occur. Both Schnur and Wagner believe that a good portion of Proposition 30’s funding will be directed to non-educational purposes, including public safety and public employee pensions.

On the federal front, the forum covered the fiscal cliff, tax reform, cybersecurity and immigration. We anticipated some sort of “bridge” agreement on the fiscal cliff that will then lead to much broader negotiations on tax reform and fairness. We urged the audience to learn the facts (by reading, for example, the CompTIA white paper on the fiscal cliff) and let lawmakers know about their concerns.

With respect to cybersecurity, there was little sense at the forum that we will see action on this important matter. Regardless, CompTIA supports a uniform, federally-preemptive data breach and notification provision as part of any cybersecurity measure.

Many components of immigration reform were discussed at the forum, including border security, pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers and family reunification. The IT community is seeking to increase the amount of H-1B visas available and extend green cards and citizenship to those who obtain STEM-related higher education degrees. There remains significant disagreement between Republicans and Democrats as to whether immigration reform should proceed incrementally or whether there is a need for a comprehensive approach that addresses all of these issues at once. Schnur noted that the presidential election revealed immigration to be a challenging but necessary issue for the Republican Party to compromise on. At the forum, views as to whether or not that would happen varied.

It was a terrific panel and we thank our hosts at the Stradling Law Firm. We are particularly grateful to Wagner and Dan Schnur for their participation and wisdom. We look forward to collaborating on many more TechVoice events in Southern California and across the country. Our next TechVoice event will be in Durham, NC, on January 11, 2013, held in partnership with the North Carolina Technology Association. It will feature remarks from Congressman David Price, and the panel will include North Carolina state representative Marilyn Avila, Ed Turlington and myself.  If you are in the vicinity, please register online and join us.