BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 3
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Date of Hearing: August 21, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 3 (Yee and Lieu) - As Amended: August 14, 2013
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill makes numerous changes to the Political Reform Act
(PRA). Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires a person serving as a committee treasurer to
complete an online training course, designed and
administered by the Fair Political Practices Commission
(FPPC), every two years.
2) Authorizes the FPPC to charge a fee of up to $50 to each
trainee, and requires the commission to complete
development of the course by December 31, 2014 and to
maintain a list on its website of treasurers who have
completed the training.
3) Subjects a treasurer who fails to complete the training
course to a fine of up to $500.
4) Requires the Secretary of State (SOS), by December 31,
2014, to develop a feasibility study report (FSR) outlining
the technology requirements and expected costs of a
statewide electronic filing system.
5) Declares legislative intent that the SOS develop a
statewide electronic filing system, as specified
6) Increases the penalty imposed on a person or committee
who files a statement or report required by the PRA after
the deadline for that report from $10 for each day after
the deadline that the statement or report is filed, to $30
per day. Increases the maximum amount of such penalties
from the cumulative amount stated on the late statement or
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report, or $100, whichever is greater, to 150% of the
cumulative amount stated in the late statement or report,
or $1,000, whichever is greater. Provides that if the SOS
is the filing officer, he or she shall deposit two-thirds
of any funds received pursuant to this provision into the
Political Disclosure, Accountability, Transparency, and
Access Fund (PDATA Fund), and the remainder into the
General Fund.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)FPPC . One-time GF costs of $200,000 for the equivalent of two
positions to develop the treasurer training program and update
regulations, and ongoing GF costs of about $140,000 to
administer the training program. These costs would be
partially offset by course fees.
Annual increase penalty revenue of around $30,000.
2)SOS . Absorbable costs to complete the FSR and minor one-time
costs ($20,000) for programming changes.
Increased penalty revenue in the low hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually, to be deposited into the PDATA Fund. (See
Comment #4)
COMMENTS
1) Background . Created in 1999, Cal-Access is the database
and filing system the SOS has used to make much of the
lobbying and campaign finance information available online
at no cost to users. In November 2011, the Cal-Access
system went down, and the system was unavailable for most
of the month of December. According to the Secretary,
"Cal-Access is a suite of applications developed in 13
different programming languages which, until [recently],
ran the system on a server cluster and associated
components?that are more than 12 years old, using an
uncommon version of the Unix operating system.?While the
[SOS] has the funding to maintain the existing hardware and
software, finding parts and qualified people to do the
maintenance on such outdated equipment has been
increasingly difficult?.
2) Purpose . According to the author, while the Cal-Access
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crash occurred during a quiet time in state politics, "this
incident only supported the ongoing commentary among
independent watchdogs, candidates, consultants, lobbyists
and media publications that the decade-old design of
Cal-ACCESS is outdated and does not meet the 21st century
data standards or demands of today."
As the SOS notes, "The cost of an entirely new system and the
speed with which it can be deployed will depend on many
factors and ultimately can only be borne out through the
state's IT procurement process, which history has shown to be
lengthy and expensive."
3) Training . In August 2010, then-chairman of the FPPC, Dan
Schnur, established a 25-member Advisory Task Force charged
with proposing regulatory and statutory changes to the PRA.
One of the changes recommended by the task force was to
require online training of campaign treasurers, to better
ensure that they are aware of basic reporting rules and
legal prohibitions.
4) PDATA Fund . SB 1001 (Yee)/Chapter 506 of 2012, imposed a
$50 annual fee on specified committees that are required to
file disclosure reports pursuant to the PRA and increased
the fee on lobbying firms and lobbyist employers from $25
to $50 per year per lobbyist. The resulting revenue, about
$490,000 annually, is to be deposited into the
newly-created PDATA Fund and used for repair and
improvements to the Secretary of State's online and
electronic disclosure program for reports filed pursuant to
the PRA.
5) Related Legislation . SB 2 (Yee and Lieu), also on
today's committee agenda, makes numerous changes to the
Political Reform Act (PRA) regarding requirements for slate
mailers and disclosures in political advertisements, and
increases sanctions for certain PRA violations.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081