BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SCA 14
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 22, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SCA 14
(Wolk) - As Amended June 17, 2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Policy | Rules |Vote:| 7-2 |
|Committee: | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------|
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This measure proposes to amend the State Constitution to require
video recordings of legislative proceedings and to require that
the text of legislation be available on the Internet at least 72
hours prior to a vote on the bill in either house. Specifically,
SCA 14
Page 2
this bill:
1)Requires both houses of the Legislature, commencing January 1,
2018, to do all of the following with respect to open and
public proceedings:
a) Produce video recordings of all floor sessions, all
committee proceedings held in the State Capitol Building,
and all other committee proceedings held outside the
Capitol where a vote is taken or another action is
recorded.
b) Make reasonable efforts to:
i) Produce video recordings of all committee
proceedings held outside the Capitol where a vote is not
taken or another action is not recorded.
ii) Broadcast in real time all floor sessions and
committee proceedings held in the Capitol.
c) Provide all video recordings made per the above to the
Legislative Counsel, who shall make the recordings promptly
available to the public. These recordings must remain
accessible to the public for at least 20 years.
2)Authorizes anyone who attends legislative proceedings to
record and broadcast those proceedings, subject to reasonable
restrictions, such as those necessary to ensure public safety
and prevent disruption.
SCA 14
Page 3
3)Stipulates that costs to implement (1) are not subject to
existing Constitutional provisions limiting legislative
expenditures, and requires the Legislature to make sufficient
funds available to carry out these purposes.
4)Reduces, from 31 days to 16 days, the earliest time, following
introduction of a bill, when the bill may be heard or acted
upon by a committee of either house.
5)Prohibits any bill from being passed in either house until the
form of the bill to be voted on has been published on the
Internet at least 72 hours before the vote in that house.
6)Provides that the requirements in (5) may be waived with a
two-thirds vote for any bill identified by the Governor as
necessary to address a state of emergency declared by the
Governor.
7)Stipulates that a bill failing to comply with the requirements
of (5) shall not become law unless it received a waiver per
(6).
8)Provides that, if another measure imposing similar
requirements as this measure appears on the same statewide
ballot, those provisions shall be deemed in conflict with this
measure, and that if this measure receives a greater number of
affirmative votes the other measure shall be null and void.
FISCAL EFFECT:
The following are the estimated costs (all General Fund) of the
measure:
SCA 14
Page 4
1)Initial one-time cost of around $2 million for infrastructure
modifications and equipment. There will also be costs of up to
$1 million every five years or so for equipment replacement,
due to changes in technology, and for additional storage
capacity.
2)Annual maintenance costs would average around $300,000.
Unknown ongoing costs for additional staff, including travel
expenses for proceedings outside the Capitol.
3)One-time printing costs of around $400,000 to include in the
statewide voter information guide the text, analysis of, and
arguments for and against the measure.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. Historically, there have been many occasions when
significant legislation has been voted upon and approved with
little time for legislators, the press, and the public at
large, to read, review, analyze, and comment on the merits of
the bill. This measure, if approved by the voters, would
provide the public more time to review legislation and express
their views to their elected representatives on the merits of
legislation, providing greater transparency and accountability
to the legislative process, while still allowing for expedited
action in case of an emergency.
2)Related Initiative. The "California Legislature Transparency
Act (CLTA)," the proponents for which are Charles T. Munger,
Jr. and former State Senator Sam Blakeslee, is currently
pending signature verification. This initiative includes
provisions similar to, though not exactly like, those in SCA
SCA 14
Page 5
14. The initiative requires video recordings of all
legislative proceedings, whether inside or outside the
Capitol. On the other hand, the CLTA does not include the
requirement in SCA 14 for broadcasting of all legislative
proceedings held in the Capitol. In addition, the costs to
comply with the initiative are to be accommodated within the
Legislature's annual operating budget, as limited by
Proposition 140 of 1990. The Legislative Analyst's Office has
estimated one-time costs of $1 million to $2 million and
ongoing costs of about $1 million to implement the initiative.
3)Related Legislation. AB 884 (Gordon), pending in the Senate,
provides necessary statutory changes to implement SCA 14, and
is contingent on voter approval of SCA 14. AB 884, in part:
a) Repeals the prohibition against using Assembly-generated
television signals for political or commercial purposes and
instead authorizes the televised or other video recordings
of the public proceedings of each house of the Legislature
and the committees thereof to be used by the public without
the imposition of any fee.
b) Requires video recordings of legislative proceedings, as
required by SCA 14, to be posted on the Internet by the
Legislative Counsel within one business day after such
proceedings have been recessed or adjourned for the day.
c) Requires recordings posted on the Internet to be
retrievable in a perceivable format for public use for the
duration of the biennial session in which the recording is
made, and the two biennial sessions immediately following,
and requires the Legislative Counsel to archive all
recordings for at least 20 years.
d) Recasts current provisions related to state copyright
SCA 14
Page 6
and proprietary interests in information to be made
publicly available in electronic form by the Legislative
Counsel and instead provides that the information made
available to the public is within the public domain.
4)Option for Initiative Withdrawal. Per SB 1253 (Steinberg),
Chapter 697, Statutes of 2014, proponents of a statewide
initiative, after filing petitions with elections officials,
are now permitted to withdraw the measure at any time before
the measure qualifies for the ballot (131 days prior to the
election at which the measure will appear). The purpose of
this option is to provide a mechanism for a proponent to
remove a ballot initiative in the event the proponent comes to
some form of negotiated resolution, such as an alternative
passed by the Legislature.
5)Prior Legislation. SCA 10 (Wolk, of 2013), ACA 1 (Olsen, of
2015), SCA 3 (Morrell, of 2015), and SCA 10 (Huff, of 2015),
which were all similar to this measure with respect to making
bills available for a specified time period prior to
consideration, were never heard in a policy committee.
Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081