BILL ANALYSIS Ó Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair SB 182 (Corbett) Hearing Date: 5/2/2011 Amended: 4/12/2011 Consultant: Jolie Onodera Policy Vote: Judiciary 3-2 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: SB 182 would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of demographic data provided by judicial applicants, nominees, appointees, justices, and judges required to be collected and released annually by the Governor, the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE Commission) of the State Bar, and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). The bill would also require any data disclosed or released to indicate the percentage of respondents who declined to respond. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund Additional demographic Up to $75 in one-time costs; $35 annually General* data collection/release by ongoing AOC Data collection/release by Minor, absorbable costsGeneral JNE/Governor's Office *Trial Court Trust Fund _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Under existing law, the Governor, the JNE Commission, and the AOC must annually collect and release demographic data relative to ethnicity, race, and gender provided by judicial applicants, nominees, appointees, justices, and judges. Providing the specified information is voluntary, and the disclosure or release of any demographic data must be done on an aggregated statistical basis and cannot identify any individual applicant, justice, or judge. This bill would add gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of demographic data to be collected and released. This bill would also require that any demographic data disclosed or released must indicate the percentage of respondents who declined to respond. To collect and publish the demographic information required, the SB 182 (Corbett) Page 3 Judicial Branch indicates it would incur both one-time and ongoing administrative costs. The estimated one-time costs reflect time for the 1,700 existing justices and judges to complete the questionnaire and discuss privacy concerns with judicial staff on the two new categories, as well staff time to prepare, compile and release the information. Costs will be dependent upon the actions of the judges and justices. To the extent some judicial officers choose not to respond to the new questionnaire nor take any time to discuss privacy concerns, these costs would be reduced. The JNE Commission is required to collect and release information provided by all judicial applicants regarding ethnicity, race, and gender, and areas of legal practice and employment, as well as a statewide summary of recommendations by category. This bill would add gender identity and sexual orientation to list of demographic data collected and released. The JNE Commission anticipates the cost of collection and release of the additional information would be minimal assuming that the upgrade to the State Bar database to add and process the new data is a simple task for the Stat Bar's information technology department. This bill would also add gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of demographic data provided by judicial applicants, nominees, and appointees required to be collected and released annually by the Governor. This bill would provide that in the year following a general election or recall election that would result in a new Governor taking office prior to March 1, the departing Governor shall provide all the demographic data collected for the year to the incoming Governor, who shall then be responsible for releasing the specified data by the March 1 deadline. The costs to collect and release the additional information are estimated to be minor and absorbable.