BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                       



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 1181|
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                                 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  
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          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  

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             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  

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          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.

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           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

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