My name is Nicholas J. Mastracchio, Jr. Pd.D. CPA. I reside at 8 Tierman Road, Scotia New York. I have been a practicing CPA for approximately 30 years. I am also a professor of accounting at a university.

I would like to comment on two provisions that I understand are in the Public Accountancy act.

First is the date change for the 150-hour requirement. I understand that currently the effective date is 2009. Therefore, since there is a five year requirement, the requirement affects freshmen in the year 2004, they would have their first five years in 2009. However, I understand the proposed legislation changes the effective date to 2005. This means that freshmen in next years class in September of 2000 would be affected. They would complete their five years in 2005.

If this is so, I believe that the logistics are unreasonable. A number of years ago, i served on an ad hoc committee formed by Doug Martin then executive secretary for the public accountancy board. It was held at Union College and various professors were invited to discuss the potential 150-hour requirement. It was pointed out the New York State has a great number of schools offering a multitude of accounting programs. I believe there are over 60 institutions offering over 200 different accounting degrees. Some of these schools, such as some of the SUNY colleges and some private colleges like LeMoyne do not offer degrees beyond a bachelor's degree. Therefore, if they are to maintain their programs they must start a graduate program or arrange ssome transfers to other schools. To suddenly change the date by five years and make the change for the next freshman class places a burden on these institutions. If they planned on having additional time to conform to the 150-hour requirement, they probably will not be able to have a suitable accounting program in time. This could have a serious impact on the viability of the program.

In addition, even schools with a masters program have to fine-tune their programs to meet the specific requirements of the 150-hour rules. For example, one program I am familiar with gives an MS in taxation degree. However, there are too many hours of accounting to meet the 150 degree rules and the program must be modified. Revisions are taking place but to get the program through the administrative hierarchy of the university system and through the State Education department for approval and advise potential new students of the fall 2000 year is an impossible task even for a small revision.

The second item I want to comment on is the proposed new experience requirement. As I understand the revision any business experience of one year will be sufficient to meet the experience requirement of becoming a CPA. I do not believe the consensus of NY State CPAs is that this change should take place. Last year the president of the NYS Society of CPAs visited the various state chapters regarding the Uniform Accounting Act. I was at the Albany chapter meeting when he spoke. A show of hands at the meeting indicated that the CPAs present did not think the experience requirement should be diluted by making it just accounting business experience instead of working on specific auditing work under the supervision of a CPA.

I believe this dilution does not serve a useful purpose and is a disservice to the public. One might equate it to a residency for a physician being replaced by some experience in health care.