BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 1253 (Steinberg) - Initiative Reform
Amended: April 9, 2014 Policy Vote: E&CA 4-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 5, 2014 Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1253 makes several changes to the initiative
process including providing a 30 day public review process,
extending the timeframe allowed for circulating a petition,
allowing the withdrawal of a petition at any time before the
measure qualifies for the ballot, and makes several other
changes to the procedures and requirements for placing an
initiative petition measure on the ballot.
Fiscal Impact:
Annual costs of $114,326 to Attorney General's Office
(General Fund)
Potential one-time costs to modify VoteCal and County EMS
systems of $500,000 (see below) (General Fund)
First year administrative costs of $215,000 and ongoing of
$250,000 to the Secretary of State (General Fund)
The Attorney General's Office indicates the need for 1 PY at
Associate Governmental Program Analyst position to handle the
additional workload related to monitoring the required public
comment section and associated duties.
The Secretary of State has indicated that amending the
initiative qualification process will have minor cost
implications for providing notice to the Legislature and
providing a certification of all voter initiated measures that
qualify for the ballot.
Existing law requires the SOS upon the completion of VoteCal to
establish a process to allow voters to opt-out of receiving the
Voter Information Guide (VIG). This bill would require that,
SB 1253 (Steinberg)
Page 1
when opting out, the voter would have the option to receive the
VIG "in an electronic format." If this is interpreted to mean
the SOS will be required to email the VIG to voters electing
this option, numerous changes to VoteCal and county election
management systems would be required. A website function would
need to be developed for voters to choose a VIG delivery option
of paper, email, or no delivery. Both VoteCal and the county
election management systems (EMS) would need to be modified to
capture email addresses and store VIG delivery options. Other
system changes include the voter registration interface between
VoteCal and the EMS, functions for elections officials to
extract email addresses, record in the voter record system
activity, and more. The costs to modify VoteCal and county EMS
systems to send the VIG electronically to those opting out are
estimated to be $500,000.
To the degree that voters elected to either not receive the VIG
or to receive it in electronic format, there would be unknown,
but significant, printing and postage cost savings.
Additionally, the Secretary of State indicates the need for 2
PY's with a first year cost of $215,000 and $205,000 ongoing
relating to the provision requiring the online posting of
consolidated ballot measure summaries and the top ten donors.
Background: Existing law establishes specific procedures and
requirements for placing an initiative petition measure on the
ballot as follows:
Proponents of a proposed statewide initiative measure are
required to submit a draft of the measure to the Attorney
General (AG) with a request for a ballot title and summary to
be prepared, prior to circulating the petition for
signatures. The request must include a payment of $200 which
is refunded to the proponent if the measure ultimately
qualifies for the ballot.
Upon receipt of the fee and request, the AG must, within 15
days of receipt of the final version of the measure, prepare
a title and a summary for submission to the Secretary of
State. If, within the 15 day period, the proponents of the
proposed initiative submit amendments, the AG must provide,
to the SOS, a revised title and summary of the amended final
SB 1253 (Steinberg)
Page 2
version of the measure.
If however, the measure requires a fiscal analysis, the
Department of Finance (DOF) and the Joint Legislative Budget
Committee, must prepare a fiscal analysis within 25 working
days of receipt of the final version of the measure. Within
15 days following receipt of the fiscal estimate of the
measure, the AG prepares the title and summary of the
Initiative including any fiscal impact and submits it to the
SOS.
Only after the title and summary has been submitted to the
SOS may the proponents begin to circulate the initiative
petitions for signatures.
The SOS is required to transmit copies of an initiative measure
and its circulating title and summary to the Senate and the
Assembly after the measure is certified to appear on the ballot
for consideration by the voters. Each house of the Legislature
then assigns the initiative measure to its appropriate
committees which hold joint public hearings on the subject of
the proposed measure prior to the date of the election at which
the measure is to be voted upon, as specified.
Proposed Law: Specifically, SB 1253 does the following:
1) Contains Findings and Declarations that California voters
need more useful information in order to make informed decisions
about an initiative measure, including a voter-friendly
explanation of each initiative; that initiative measures should
be able to be corrected before signature gathering begins; and,
that proponents of an initiative measure should be able to
withdraw a measure before it qualifies for the ballot.
2) Requires every initiative petition to contain a statement
informing voters that the proponents have the right to withdraw
the petition at any time before the measure qualifies for the
ballot.
3) Revises the length of the ballot title and summary, and of
the circulating title and summary, to be between 25 and 150
words, rather than the current maximum of 100 words.
SB 1253 (Steinberg)
Page 3
4) Requires the Attorney General to initiate a 30 day public
review process after a proponent has submitted a measure for
circulating title and summary. The public review process will
include: 1) posting the measure on the AG's Internet Web site,
and 2) promoting public participating by inviting written public
comments which may include suggested amendments to the
initiative. Any written comments will be transmitted to the
proponents of the initiative measure.
5) Requires the fiscal estimate to be prepared jointly by the
Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst, and provides
45 days for the estimate to be completed (up from the current 25
day deadline).
6) Extends the time for signature gathering from 150 days to
180 days from the official summary date.
7) Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to issue a certificate
identifying each initiative measure which has been issued a
notice of qualification on the 131st day before an election, as
specified.
8) Require proponents to submit a certification, signed under
penalty of perjury, to the Secretary of State immediately upon
the collection of 25 percent of the number of signatures needed
to qualify the initiative measure for the ballot.
9) Provides a timeframe for the Senate and Assembly Committees
to hold a hearing on the subject of each initiative measure of
not later than 131 days before the date of the election.
10) Requires the AG to prepare the ballot title and summary in
clear and concise terms; to indicate the type and amount of a
tax or fee if proposed; note whether the measure repeals
existing law and if the measure is contingent upon the passage
of another.
11) Requires the Legislature to provide the Attorney General
with sufficient funding for administrative and other support
relating to the preparation of the ballot title and summary for
initiative measures.
SB 1253 requires the Secretary of State to create an Internet
SB 1253 (Steinberg)
Page 4
Web site, or use other available technology, to consolidate
information about each ballot measure including the top donors,
as specified, in a manner that is easy for voters to access and
understand, as specified. The bill also requires the SOS to
enable a voter to receive the state ballot pamphlet in an
electronic format upon the implementation of a statewide voter
registration database.
Finally, SB 1253 will allow proponents to withdraw a measure
after filing the petition with the appropriate elections
official at any time before the measure qualifies for the
ballot. Proponents will be prohibited from accepting any money
or other consideration to obtain the withdrawal of a measure
from the ballot.
Staff Comments: SB 1253 extends the time allowed to gather
signatures and establishes a prequalification process. The
prequalification process includes the ability to amend an
initiative before it appears on the ballot as long as the
changes are consistent with the original intent. The
prequalification process also engages the Legislature earlier in
the process.
Staff notes that SB 1253 extends the permissive text length of
the title and summary for a measure from 100 to 150 words.
Current statute provides that the ballot title and summary
cannot exceed 1/3 of a page in the Voter Information Guide.
Consequently this could result in the Secretary of State having
to use a smaller type size to avoid this conflict.