BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1349
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Date of Hearing: June 29, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 1349
(Hertzberg) - As Amended June 21, 2016
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|Policy |Elections and Redistricting |Vote:|7 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires Secretary of State (SOS) to develop a new
online campaign filing and disclosure system. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires the SOS, in consultation with the Fair Political
Practices Commission (FPPC), to develop an online filing and
disclosure system, as specified, for use by persons and
entities required to file statements and reports with the SOS
in accordance with Political Reform Act (PRA).
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2)Exempts this system development from various information
technology procurement requirements, and from project and
funding approvals, in order to implement this bill as
expeditiously as possible, but requires the SOS to consult
with the Department of Technology, as appropriate.
3)Permits the SOS to accept any funds, services, equipment or
grants to further the provisions of this bill provided that
the SOS notifies the Assembly Committee on Elections and
Redistricting and the Senate Committee on Elections and
Constitutional Amendments upon accepting any amount valued at
$100,000 or more.
4)Requires the SOS to:
a) Report to the Assembly Committee on Elections and
Redistricting and the Senate Committee on Elections and
Constitutional Amendments by December 31, 2017, with a plan
for the online filing and disclosure system.
b) Make the online filing and disclosure system available
for use no later than February 1, 2019, and allows this
deadline to be extended to no later than December 31, 2019,
after consultation with the Assembly Committee on Elections
and Redistricting and the Senate Committee on Elections and
Constitutional Amendments and after providing those
committees with a report explaining the need for the
extension and including a plan for completion.
c) Provide quarterly progress reports, as specified, on the
system development to the Joint Legislative Budget
Committee and the fiscal committees in each house.
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FISCAL EFFECT:
1)The SOS will incur one-time costs of $11.6 million to develop,
test, and implement the new system and ongoing costs of $2.8
million related to operate and maintain the system, which will
be offset to some extent by savings from discontinued use of
the existing system and of paper filings. [General Fund and
PDATA Fund-see below]
2)The FPPC will incur ongoing General Fund costs of $130,000 to
interface with the new system, and likely minor costs to
update forms, and modify regulations to reflect the new
system.
COMMENTS:
1)Background and Purpose. Cal-Access is a 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. According to the SOS, the Cal-Access system is fueled
by a complex array of computer applications written in 14
different programming languages including hardware, firmware,
and software - some no longer supported by their vendor - that
are beyond their useful age. As a result, the Cal-Access
system has denied public access, gone offline, and put strain
on SOS staff resources. In November 2011, the Cal-Access
system went down, and the system was unavailable for most of
the month of December.
Although the system has remained online since the cause of the
failure was addressed, frequent concerns have been expressed
by users and other observers regarding the current state and
usefulness of Cal-Access. In an effort to modernize the
Cal-Access system, this bill requires the SOS, in consultation
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with the FPPC, to develop and certify for public use a new
online filing and disclosure system for statements and reports
that provide public disclosure of campaign finance and
lobbying information in a user-friendly, easily understandable
format.
2)Funding. SB 1001 (Yee), Chapter 506, Statutes 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. SB 1001 also stipulated that revenues
from these fees would be deposited into a newly-created
Political Disclosure, Accountability, Transparency, and Access
Fund (PDATA Fund) to update or replace Cal-Access. PDATA Fund
revenues are projected to total about $500,000 in 2016-17, and
the fund will have a balance of $2.2 million as of June 30,
2017.
The Governor's May revision to the 2016-17 budget proposed
$757,000 from the PDATA Fund for Cal-Access. Additionally,
Budget Conference Committee and the Legislature adopted an
Assembly proposal to provide additional $1 million for
Cal-Access system replacement. According to the Secretary of
State these augmentations will allow the office to complete a
request-for-proposal for a new system.
3)Prior Legislation. SB 1442 (Lara) of 2014, which in part
required the SOS to develop a new statewide Internet-based
system for the electronic filing and public display of all
records filed pursuant to the PRA, was vetoed. In his veto
message, the Governor stated that before an additional
information technology project is authorized, the SOS should
complete the two other information technology projects that
were underway at the time.
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Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916)
319-2081