BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1181| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: AB 1181 Author: Huber (D) Amended: 8/26/09 in Senate Vote: 27 SENATE ELEC., REAP. & CONST. AMEND. COMMITTEE : 4-1, 7/7/09 AYES: Hancock, DeSaulnier, Liu, Strickland NOES: Walters SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8 ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-1, 5/28/09 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Political Reform Act of 1974: statements and reports SOURCE : Secretary of State DIGEST : This bill lowers the monetary thresholds which trigger mandatory electronic reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures by candidates, officeholders, committees, major donors, and slate mailer organizations. It also eliminates the requirement that members of the Legislature and Board of Equalization, court of appeal justices, superior court judges, and candidates for those offices file paper copies of campaign reports with the elections official of the county with the largest number of registered voters in the districts affected and instead requires candidates for the Board of Administration of the Public Employees retirement System to file campaign CONTINUED AB 1181 Page 2 reports online or electronically with the Secretary of State. Senate Floor Amendments of 8/26/09 addressed "chaptering-out" problems with another bill and to make a conforming change to an existing Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) regulation. Specifically, these amendments addressed a "chaptering-out" problem with AB 1514 (Hayashi) and make a conforming change to an existing FPPC regulation regarding where specified campaign committees are required to file their reports. ANALYSIS : This bill lowers the monetary thresholds which trigger mandatory electronic reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures by candidates, officeholders, committees, major donors, and slate mailer organizations. Specifically, this bill: 1. Lowers, from $50,000 to $25,000, the cumulative amount of contributions received, expenditures made, or loans made or received by a candidate or committee in connection with a state elective office or a state measure before that candidate or committee is required to file those reports online or electronically. 2. Lowers, from $50,000 to $25,000, the cumulative amount of contributions received or expenditures made by a general purpose committee to support or oppose candidates for any elective state office or state measures, before that committee is required to file those reports online or electronically. 3. Lowers, from $50,000 to $25,000, the cumulative amount of reportable payments received or made for the purposes of producing slate mailers by a slate mailer organization before that slate mailer organization is required to file campaign reports online or electronically. 4. Lowers, from $5,000 in a calendar quarter to $2,500 in a calendar quarter, the amount of reportable payments, expenses, contributions, gifts, or other items that must be made by a lobbyist, lobbying firm, or lobbyist employer before that lobbyist, firm, or employer is CONTINUED AB 1181 Page 3 required to file periodic lobbying disclosure reports online or electronically. 5. Eliminates the requirement that statewide candidates, committees formed to support or oppose statewide measures, and state general purpose committees file a paper copy of all campaign reports with Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties. Eliminates the requirement that members of the Legislature and Board of Equalization, court of appeal justices, superior court judges, and candidates for those offices file a paper copy of campaign reports with the elections official in the county with the largest number of registered voters in the district. 6. Requires candidates for the Board of Administration of the Public Employees Retirement System to file campaign reports online or electronically with the Secretary of State (SOS). 7. Eliminates the requirement that a paper copy of a late contribution report or a late independent expenditure report be filed if such report is submitted by online or electronic transmission to the SOS. 8. Requires lobbyist registration statements and amendments to those statements to be filed both by online or electronic means and with the SOS unless filing in proper format as no longer required by law. Comments According to the author's office, "Senate Bill 49 (Karnette), of 1997, created online disclosure of campaign reports in order to cast public sunshine on the campaign contribution statements and political activities of state leaders and lobbyists. However, SB 49 is limited in scope. For example, as long as campaigns spend or receive less than $50,000 per year, their activities are not subject to online public review. Similarly, lobbyists or lobbyist employers are not required to submit electronic disclosure reports of their expenditures unless they spend over $5,000 on political lobbying. Thus, thousands of candidates, donors, campaign officials and special interests are still CONTINUED AB 1181 Page 4 allowed to submit disclosure forms that are not available online. Consequently, California currently does not meet the [Political Reform Act's] goal of keeping voters 'fully informed.'" SB 49 (Karnette), Chapter 866, Statutes of 1997, the Online Disclosure Act of 1997, required the SOS to develop a process whereby reports and statements required under the Political Reform Act (PRA) could be filed online and viewed by the public. SB 49 also required certain candidates, committees, slate mailer organizations, lobbyists, lobbyist employers, and lobbying firms to file campaign reports online. Under existing law, the SOS is required to determine and publicly disclose when the online and electronic campaign disclosure systems are operating effectively. Despite the fact that legislation requiring the development of an online campaign disclosure system was enacted in 1997, the SOS has never made a public determination that the online campaign disclosure system is operating effectively. Given that it has been 12 years since the Legislature required the creation of an online campaign disclosure system, and given the fact that the SOS still has not determined that the system is operating effectively, it is unclear whether it is timely and appropriate to expand the situations under which reports are required to be filed using that system. California voters passed an initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974 that created the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and codified significant restrictions and prohibitions on candidates, officeholders and lobbyists. That initiative is commonly known as the PRA. Amendments to the PRA that are not submitted to the voters, such as those contained in this bill, must further the purposes of the initiative and require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, no net fiscal impact to the SOS, with who campaign reports are filed. CONTINUED AB 1181 Page 5 SUPPORT : (Verified 8/19/09) Secretary of State, Debra Bowen (source) California Commerce Cause California Common Cause CALPIRG League of Women Voters of California ASSEMBLY FLOOR : AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello, John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Price, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass NOES: Nielsen NO VOTE RECORDED: Fuller, Hagman, Miller DLW:do 8/27/09 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED