BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 519 (Emmerson) - Special Elections
Amended: April 1, 2013 Policy Vote: E&CA 5-0
Urgency: Yes Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 23, 2013 Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
SUSPENSE FILE.
Bill Summary: SB 519 requires the state to reimburse counties
for the costs of special elections proclaimed by the governor to
fill a vacancy in the office of State Senator, member of the
State Assembly, U. S. Senator, or Member of the U. S. House of
Representatives. The bill will require reimbursement for those
elections held between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2013.
Fiscal Impact:
Approximately $7.9 million in reimbursement costs to
counties (General)
Background: Existing law requires all expenses authorized and
necessarily incurred in the preparation for, and conduct of,
elections to be paid from the county treasuries, except that
when an election is called by the governing body of a city the
expenses are paid from the city treasury.
First implemented by AB 37 (Johnson), Chapter 39, Statutes of
1993, the state has reimbursed counties for the costs of special
elections held to fill vacancies in the Senate, Assembly, and
Congress from 1993 through 2007. Since 2008, there have been
numerous, but unsuccessful, legislative attempts to extend this
reimbursement provision.
Proposed Law: SB 519 provides that all expenses authorized and
necessarily incurred on or after January 1, 2012 and before
December 31, 2013 in the preparation for, and conduct of,
elections proclaimed by the Governor to fill a vacancy in the
office of Senator or Member of the Assembly, or to fill a
vacancy in the office of U. S. Senator or Member of the U. S.
House of Representatives, shall be paid by the state.
SB 519 (Emmerson)
Page 1
Related Legislation: This bill is similar to SB 106 (Blakeslee)
2011, SB 141 (Price) of 2011, SB 994 (Price) of 2010, AB 496
(Davis) of 2010 - all of which were held in this committee's
Suspense File. AB 1769 (Tran) was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee in 2010.
Staff Comments: The state had reimbursed counties for the costs
of special elections conducted to fill congressional or
legislative vacancies from 1993 through 2007. In the last two
decades and since the implementation of legislative term limits
there have been 121 special primary and general elections to
fill vacant seats in the Assembly, Senate and Congress. Special
elections can result in costs of approximately $1 million for
counties to conduct depending on the size of the county. Costs
are much lower if the vacancy election is consolidated with
another election. Most often these costs are unbudgeted and
unanticipated, even necessitating the shifting of funds from
other critical programs to pay for the mandated elections.
L.A. County is expected to incur millions of dollars of special
elections costs in 2013 from races to fill vacancies in Senate
District 32, and likely elections to fill vacancies in Assembly
District 45 and Senate District 26. San Diego County has
already incurred costs of $1.1 million for the special primary
election on March 12, 2013 to fill the vacancy in the 40th
Senate District, and will be holding a primary election on May
21, 2013 for the 80th Assembly District and potentially a runoff
on July 30, 2013. Each of those elections is expected to cost
approximately $800,000.