SB1291 revises Hawaii’s certified public accountant licensure standards to create an alternative pathway to becoming a CPA. The bill keeps the core requirements for licensure—being at least 18, demonstrating competence and good character, passing the exam, paying fees, and completing required professional experience—but changes the education and experience rules that applicants must satisfy. Under the bill, an applicant must still have a bachelor’s degree and at least 18 semester hours of upper-division or graduate accounting or auditing coursework, but the existing requirement for 30 additional semester hours of education can be replaced by 12 additional months of public accounting experience.
The bill also broadens how experience may count toward licensure. It allows private-sector or government accounting/auditing experience to be substituted for all or part of the two years of required public accounting experience if the Board of Public Accountancy deems it equivalent under its rules. In addition, the bill repeals the older statutory section that had imposed a 150-semester-hour educational framework and related grandfathering language, replacing it with the updated licensure structure. The measure takes effect upon approval.
Impact
SB1291 would amend Hawaii Revised Statutes section 466-5 governing CPA licensure and repeal section 466-5.5, thereby modernizing the statutory framework for public accountancy licensing. It reduces the education barrier for applicants by allowing additional professional experience to stand in place of the extra 30 semester hours, and it gives the Board of Public Accountancy rulemaking authority to define acceptable coursework and equivalent private or government experience. The bill affects CPA candidates, the Board of Public Accountancy, employers in public accounting, and potentially accounting professionals in private industry or government seeking licensure.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests broad support in committee, with the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee passing the measure unanimously on the recorded votes (4-0) and advancing it with amendments and recommittal. The bill’s stated purpose is to address a declining pipeline of CPA candidates and reduce barriers to entry, which indicates a generally favorable policy sentiment toward expanding licensure access. No committee transcript excerpts were provided, so the record here reflects support inferred from the votes and the bill’s framing rather than detailed debate.
Contention
The main policy tension in SB1291 is between lowering entry barriers and preserving licensure rigor. Supporters appear to favor the bill because it responds to workforce shortages and the cost burden of the traditional 150-hour education model, while the amendments preserve core competency, ethics, and exam requirements. Potential concerns would likely come from those who prefer the existing education standard or worry that substituting experience for classroom hours could dilute uniformity in CPA preparation. The bill addresses this by limiting the substitute to additional public accounting experience and by leaving the Board discretion to define what private or government experience is equivalent.