BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 651
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 13, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                     AB 651 (Hueso) - As Amended:  April 5, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires professional petition firms-entities that pay 
          individuals to circulate petitions and gather signatures to 
          qualify state or local initiatives-to register annually with the 
          Secretary of State (SOS).  This bill also:

          1)Requires these firms to pay a registration fee to the SOS, who 
            must use the fee revenues to maintain a directory of the firms 
            on its Website and defray other expenses associated with the 
            registration requirement.

          2)Requires a member of a professional petition firm to review 
            with every paid petition circulator, as a condition of hiring, 
            the law relating to obtaining petition signatures and to 
            submit of copy of such training materials to the SOS along 
            with a statement signed by each paid petition circulator and 
            the individual who conducted the law review.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Likely minor costs to the SOS to establish and maintain the 
          registration system, at least partially offset by fees paid by 
          registrants.  The SOS indicates that there are currently less 
          than 20 petition firms operating in the state.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  .  According to the author, the initiative process has 
            shifted from what was originally envisioned to be a grass 
            roots effort to a system heavily influenced by special 
            interests that spend large sums of money, using paid signature 
            gatherers, to qualify a measure for the ballot. The author 








                                                                  AB 651
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            believes that AB 651, by requiring state registration of 
            petition gathering firms, posing this information on the SOS 
            website, and requiring these firms to train their workers 
            regarding relevant state law, will help ensure an open and 
            transparent initiative process.

           2)Related Legislation . AB 481 (Gordon), pending in Assembly 
            Elections, requires signature gatherers to wear badges 
            indicating whether they are paid or voluteers.
                
            3)Prior Legislation  . In 2009, AB 6 (Saldana), a substantially 
            similar bill, was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger, who 
            declined to sign a bill that he argued "places an undue burden 
            on reform-minded Californians."
           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081