BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                           312 (Romero)
          
          Hearing Date:  04/27/09         Amended: As Introduced
          Consultant:  Dan Troy           Policy Vote: ED 5-0
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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   SB 312 would require the State Board of  
          Education and the State Allocation Board to provide for live  
          video and audio transmission of all meetings and hearings that  
          are open to the public through a technology accessible to as  
          large segment of the public as possible. The SBE and SAB would  
          be required to consult with the Chief Information Officer to  
          implement the provisions of the bill
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2009-10      2010-11       2011-12     Fund
                                                                  
          SBE/SAB                  Unknown, potentially significant costs   
          General
                                                                to meet  
          open-ended transmission
                                   requirements
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meet the criteria for referral to the  
          Suspense File.

          By requiring the SBE and SAB to take "all reasonable steps" to  
          transmit public meetings through a technology "that is  
          accessible to as large a segment of the public as possible", the  
          bill's requirements may be too open-ended to achieve full  
          compliance.  Similarly, costs would also appear to be  
          open-ended. 
          
          Staff recommends amending the bill to specify that the SBE and  
          SAB may meet the requirements of the bill through the use of  
          "any" of the specified technologies (cable television, Web cast,  
          the K-12 High Speed Network), rather than "all" of them.  This  
          would reduce costs to $5,000 one-time for the SBE and likely  
          less than $10,000 annually for the SAB to meet the primary  










          objectives of the bill.