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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

ADVOCATE—A Small Businessman’s Businessman

Mel Kohn Title: Managing Partner Company: Kirsch, Kohn & Bridge Education: B.S. in business administration from UCLA ersonal: Married, with two grown children Most Admired Person: No one A longtime valley accountant has staked out a position in the business tax reform debate Mel Kohn is an accountant; he doesn’t mind crunching numbers. In fact, he loves it. That passion has led him to many opportunities where he can help local businesses other than his own. As managing partner and founder of the Encino accounting firm Kirsch, Kohn & Bridge LLP since 1960, Kohn has become known as much for his passion for helping local business people as for his accounting skills. So it may have come as little surprise to those who know him that the California Chamber of Commerce named Kohn and five others from throughout the state its California Small Business Advocates of the Year. His work with the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) has resulted in the California State Legislature’s passage of the Local Agency Special Tax and Bond Accountability Act, or Truth in Bonding Act a measure aimed at ensuring that bond money is used for the projects for which it had originally been intended. Kohn is also chairman of the city’s Business Tax Advisory Committee, aimed at reforming a convoluted business tax system and allowing local businesses the opportunity to reduce their tax burdens. But while that effort is still ongoing a final decision by the Los Angeles City Council on the committee’s recommendation may come later this year Kohn says he’s merely pleased to be a part of a project aimed at helping local businesses. His privately held firm keeps its revenues confidential, but Kohn says the business is thriving, giving him all the more reason to share his knowledge and expertise with local businesses. His clients come from construction, manufacturing, health care, publishing and real estate, among others. VICA President Bonny Herman said she is pleased Kohn’s contributions to the business community have been recognized. “Mel Kohn has not only committed countless hours of his own time to reforming the city’s complex business tax system,” she said, “his leadership and volunteerism have motivated the committee’s 18 other members to do the same.” Kohn’s community activism, however, isn’t limited to the business community. Last year, he served as principal for a day at Encino Elementary School and eventually established a program there to help students learn the importance of managing money. Question: What led you to become a business advocate? Answer: I’ve always given back. First of all, to the profession; I’ve been very involved with the CPA society and served on the boards of various groups. I’ve always felt it’s important that people get involved in their community, whether it’s advocacy or nonprofit or anything involved in the community. I wanted to do something with business, not something to do with an illness or a disease charity. This was something that you can actually see and do on a professional level that has an impact. Q: What is your interest in VICA? A: I hadn’t heard about VICA until I read one of my clients was getting involved in it (in 1995). It really comes down to it being local, in the community. It’s here and you can touch it and see it work. So I joined and got involved in a lot of things. I generally pick local issues instead of state or federal issues to work with. I like to see results that impact this community. Q: For instance? A: The first thing I did (in 1995) was try to do an historical 20-year summary of the budget of Los Angeles, trying to do a mini-LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission) study. The goal was trying to determine what revenue and expenses the Valley had. It was real thorough and we couldn’t get far enough and really it was because of information. It was very hard to get. So if you see what LAFCO did and how long it took them, it’s exactly what we had to go up against. Q: How do you feel about Valley secession? A: It’s up to the voters to decide. The bottom line is helping provide economic growth in the Valley. I don’t want to sound like a secessionist, but there are a lot of things wrong with how the city taxes business. But it can be corrected. Economic growth deals with creating jobs and keeping jobs and that’s what we’re about, no matter who’s in charge of the Valley. Q: The chamber award also cited your work in the Truth in Bonding Act that was recently passed by the state legislature. What was your involvement in that? A: You look at the whole history in the Valley. There was a police station in the late ’80s that never happened; then you have things like the school repairs bond, (Proposition) BB, that took a long time. We wanted to have somebody watching the bond money. It’s putting trust back in the community that makes sure that, what they voted for, they’re going to get. Q: When will we see business tax reform? A: Soon. It’s taken more time than I anticipated in getting a result. It’s basically going to happen right now in a motion before council. Last year we laid out the blueprint for tax reform, a significant document because it laid out what the business community felt should happen with tax reform. Q: What are some of the reforms? A: We started off with a very unique concept. Pay as we go (an installment plan for taxpayers instead of a lump sum payment), that’s what the recommendation is. We want to pay as we go and have an amnesty (to void penalties) and get all the people that are not paying to pay, which we feel will raise $30 million. We also want the city to have an appeals system so that the taxpayer can appeal, so that they know that there’s someone out there who can help. We heard a lot of complaints that the tax system is unfair. So if you live in L.A. and you’re five blocks away from El Segundo, you’re competing against someone there and you have this burden that they don’t and that’s unfair. Q: What got you interested in teaching children about money management? A: It was something I could do. The kids had fun and, being principal for a day, I never realized what a principal does. It’s like being a CEO of a company. You have to deal with teachers, you have to deal with students, you have to deal with teaching methods and it was really overwhelming to see what a principal has to do. Q: What’s been the key to your firm’s success? A: We feel that business is a relationship. Anybody can crunch numbers. We’re all accountants. It’s a people business. It really is. We really deal in relationships and our product is accounting. Accounting is a unique profession because we have to basically perform services to our clients that are dictated by business and government. Q: How has your business changed over the years? A: Now, individual taxpayers can do their own tax returns and it’s terrific that they can be involved in that. There have been a lot of technical changes like computers and things like that, but the bottom line is that you still have to deal with people and provide personal service. You have to build relationships and that never changes. Q: How have your civic duties impacted your business? A: I haven’t gotten any business from that. I’ve gotten some referrals. But this isn’t my networking group. It’s strictly taking care of the community for me.

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