BILL ANALYSIS AB 1181 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 1181 (Huber) As Amended August 26, 2009 2/3 vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |76-1 |(May 28, 2009) |SENATE: |27-9 |(April 15, | | | | | | |2010) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: E. & R. SUMMARY : 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 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 AB 1181 Page 2 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 in a paper format. The Senate amendments : 1)Require candidates for superior court to file campaign reports online or electronically with the SOS if the cumulative amount of contributions received, expenditures made, loans made, or loans received by the candidate is $25,000 or more. 2)Provide that a candidate for elective state office who is not also a candidate for local elective office who files campaign reports by online or electronic means with the SOS need not file a copy of those reports with a local filing officer. 3)Add double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems with AB 1514 (Hayashi), and make various technical and clarifying changes. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was similar to the version approved by the Senate. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs. COMMENTS : According to the author, "Senate Bill 49 (Karnette, 1997) created online disclosure of campaign reports in order to cast AB 1181 Page 3 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 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.'" Under existing law, the SOS is required to determine and publicly disclose when 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 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 Political Reform Act (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. Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion of this bill. Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094 FN: 0002539