BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SCA 14 (Wolk) - Legislative procedure
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|Version: June 1, 2016 |Policy Vote: E. & C.A. 4 - 1 |
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|Urgency: |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: June 13, 2016 |Consultant: Robert Ingenito |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SCA 14, if approved by the voters, would (1)
prohibit the Legislature from passing a bill unless it has been
published on the Internet in its final form for at least 72
hours, as specified, and (2) require the Legislature to make
available audiovisual recordings of the open and public
proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees
thereof, as prescribed.
Fiscal Impact:
The Legislature would incur one-time General Fund costs
of up to $2 million to purchase audiovisual recording
equipment, and about $1 million in ongoing General Fund
costs related to personnel and storage of the audiovisual
recordings. The measure explicitly excludes these costs
from the Legislature's annual budget, which is subject to
limits established by Proposition 140 of 1990, and requires
the Legislature to make sufficient funding available for
these purposes.
One-time General Fund costs in the range of $414,000 to
$552,000 to the Secretary of State (SOS) for printing and
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mailing costs to place the measure on the ballot in the
next statewide election.
Background: The California Constitution (1) requires that the
proceedings of each house of the Legislature and the committees
thereof be open and public, with specified exceptions, (2)
provides that, during regular sessions, no bill other than the
budget bill may be heard or acted on by committee or either
house until the 31st day after the bill is introduced unless the
house dispenses with this requirement, as specified, and (3)
prohibits either house from passing a bill until the bill with
amendments has been printed and distributed to the Members of
the Legislature. Furthermore, Article IV, Section 7.5, of the
California Constitution caps the total aggregate expenditures of
the Legislature for the compensation of its members and
employees, and its operating expenses and equipment, and limits
the growth of the Legislature's budget by annual adjustments
equal to the percentage increase in the State appropriations
limit (Proposition 140, an initiative measure passed by the
voters on November 6, 1990).
Current statutory law (1) requires the Legislative Counsel to
make certain information available to the public in electronic
form, including, among other things, the text of each bill
introduced in each current legislative session, including each
amended, enrolled, and chaptered form of each bill, and (2)
prohibits a television signal generated by the Assembly from
being used for any political or commercial purpose, including,
but not limited to, any campaign for elective public office or
any campaign supporting or opposing a ballot proposition
submitted to the electors; a violation of this prohibition
results in a misdemeanor.
Proposed Law: This proposed constitutional amendment, among
other things, would do the following:
Require the Legislature, commencing on January 1, 2018,
to do the following with respect to its open and public
proceedings:
o Cause audiovisual recordings to be made of (1)
all floor sessions of each house of the Legislature,
(2) the committee proceedings thereof at which a vote
is taken or other action is recorded, and (3)
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committee proceedings thereof held in the State
Capitol Building regardless of whether a vote is taken
or an action is recorded.
o Make reasonable efforts to cause audiovisual
recordings to be made of all committee proceedings
held outside of the State Capitol Building at which no
vote is taken and no action is recorded.
o Make reasonable efforts to broadcast to the
public, in real time, all proceedings of the
Legislature and the committees thereof that are held
in the State Capitol Building.
o Require the Legislative Counsel to make the
recordings promptly available to the public; the
recordings shall remain reasonably accessible to the
public for not less than 20 years.
o Enact laws to implement these provisions, and
require the bills enacting such laws to be published
in final form on the Internet for at least 12 days
prior to the final vote in each house.
o Specify that expenditures made in furtherance
of this provision are not subject to existing
limitations to the Legislature's budget enacted
pursuant to Proposition 140 of 1990.
o Require the Legislature to make sufficient
funding available to carry out these purposes.
Provide that no bill may be passed until it has been
published on the Internet in its final form for at least 72
hours prior to the final vote in the second house.
If a bill is passed by the house of origin without having
been published on the Internet in its final form for at
least 72 hours prior to that vote and the bill is not
amended thereafter in the second house, then the bill may
not be passed except by a second rollcall vote in the house
or origin following the final vote in the second house.
Upon a roll call vote, two-thirds of the membership
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concurring, these requirements may be waived for a bill if
the Governor has declared a state of emergency, as
specified.
Provide that in the event that this measure and another
measure that imposes transparency requirements on the
Legislature appear on the same statewide ballot, the
provisions of the other measure or measures shall be deemed
to be in conflict with this measure. In the event that
this measure receives a greater number of affirmative votes
than a measure deemed to be in conflict with it, the
provisions of this measure shall prevail in their entirety,
and the other measure or measures shall be null and void in
their entirety.
Related Legislation: Several bills, including SCA 10 (Wolk, of
2013), ACA 1 (Olsen, of 2015), SCA 3 (Morrell, of 2015), and SCA
10 (Huff, of 2015), are similar to this measure with respect to
making bills available for a specified time period prior to
consideration. None of these prior bills were heard by a policy
committee.
AB 884 (Gordon) would establish how the Legislature would
arrange for audiovisual recording of the Legislature's
activities and is contingent upon voter approval of SCA 14
(Wolk). This bill will also be heard in this Committee on June
13, 2016.
Staff Comments: The SOS indicates that printing and mailing
costs associated with placing a measure on the statewide ballot
are approximately $69,000 per page, depending on the length of
the ballot. The fiscal estimate noted above reflects the
addition of 6-8 pages in the Voter Information Guide. Actual
costs would depend upon the length of the title and summary,
analysis by the Legislative Analyst's Office, proponent and
opponent arguments, and text of the proposal.
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