Brian Wallace on CLA's Legislative Advocacy and the Billion-Dollar Impact Report

On this episode of Full Cycle, host Matt DeWolf talks with Brian Wallace, president and CEO of CLA, The Laundry Association, about a side of the organization's work that rarely gets discussed: legislative and regulatory advocacy on behalf of laundromat owners. Wallace walks through CLA's new Advocacy Impact Report, which puts a dollar figure, $7.4 billion, on decades of legislative wins. That includes the effort to have laundromats formally classified as essential businesses at the federal level during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing work to preserve state sales tax exemptions in states such as Louisiana, Nebraska and Connecticut, and recent amendments to microfiber filtration legislation in California, Illinois and New York that excluded commercial washers installed in laundromats from the requirement. He credits board member Jamie Sewell with pushing him to quantify work that had largely lived in institutional memory. Wallace also explains why the sales tax exemption, which currently applies in 41 of the 44 states that collect a sales tax, remains one of CLA's most persistent issues, and how bringing legislators into member stores, including visits with a California assembly member and a New York state senator, has helped clear up misconceptions about how laundromats operate and who they serve. The conversation closes with a look at other issues CLA tracks, from coin and currency composition to wastewater and PFAS concerns, and Wallace's advice for owners who want to get involved locally. Listeners can find the CLA Advocacy Impact Report at laundryassociation.org. This episode is brought to you by Eastern Funding, which has provided financing for laundromat purchases, construction and equipment since 1997. Learn more at easternfunding.com/laundry. Thanks for giving us a turn.