BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1349|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1349
Author: Hertzberg (D), et al.
Amended: 8/15/16
Vote: 27
SENATE ELECTIONS & C.A. COMMITTEE: 4-0, 4/5/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Hertzberg, Liu
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hancock
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 38-0, 5/31/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Huff, Jackson, Lara,
Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone,
Vidak, Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hueso, Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 8/29/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Political Reform Act of 1974: Secretary of State:
online filing and disclosure system
SOURCE: California Business Roundtable
California Common Cause
DIGEST: This bill requires the Secretary of State (SOS), in
consultation with the Fair Political Practices Commission
(FPPC), to develop and certify for public use a new online
filing and disclosure system for statements and reports that
provides public disclosure of campaign finance and lobbying
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information in a user-friendly, easily understandable format, as
specified.
Assembly Amendments (1) add coauthors; (2) require that all
filed data is maintained online for at least 20 years after the
date it is filed; and (3) require the SOS to submit to the
chairs of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the fiscal
committees of the Legislature a quarterly report on the progress
of the Cal-Access Project.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires the SOS, in consultation with the FPPC, to provide
online and electronic filing processes for use by specified
political committees, lobbyists, lobbying firms, and lobbyist
employers pursuant to the Political Reform Act (PRA). This
online reporting and disclosure system is commonly referred to
as the Cal-Access system.
2)Requires the SOS to make all the data filed using the online
and electronic filing process available on the Internet for
public viewing in an easily understood format.
3)Requires the SOS to provide a means or method whereby entities
that are required to file statements or reports online or
electronically with the SOS can submit those required filings
free of charge.
4)Requires all state candidates and state political committees
that are required to file campaign reports to file those
reports online or electronically if the cumulative amount of
contributions received, expenditures made, loans made, or
loans received is $25,000 or more.
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5)Provides that the Department of Technology and the Department
of General Services maintain specified oversight
responsibilities regarding state informational technology
procurements.
This bill:
1)Requires the SOS, in consultation with the FPPC, to develop an
online filing and disclosure system for use by persons and
entities that are required to file statements and reports with
the SOS in accordance with PRA.
2)Requires the system to enable a user to comply with all the
disclosure requirements of the PRA and a data-driven means or
method that allows filers to submit required filings free of
charge in a manner that facilitates public searches of the
data, as specified.
3)Requires the SOS to do all of the following with respect to
developing the online filing and disclosure system and record
format pursuant to this bill:
a) Consult with the Assembly Committee on Elections and
Redistricting, the Senate Committee on Elections and
Constitutional Amendments, the FPPC, users, filers, and
other stakeholders, as appropriate, about functions of the
online filing and disclosure system;
b) Hold at least one public hearing, in consultation with
the FPPC, no later than July 31, 2017, to receive input
about developing the online filing and disclosure system
and record format; and,
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c) Submit a report, no later than December 31, 2017, to
the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting and
the Senate Committee on Elections and Constitutional
Amendments, as specified.
4)Requires the SOS to make the online filing and disclosure
system available for use no later than February 1, 2019.
Permits the SOS to extend this date to a date no later than
December 31, 2019, as specified.
5)Exempts the SOS from various information technology
requirements, and from project and funding approvals, for the
purposes of implementing this bill as expeditiously as
possible.
6)Requires the SOS, in consultation with the FPPC, before making
the system available for public use, to test the system to
ensure its functionality and then certify that the system
meets all the requirements of this bill.
7)Provides that after the system developed pursuant to this bill
is certified, the previous system developed pursuant to
existing law shall no longer accept reports and filings,
unless otherwise directed by the SOS and the FPPC. Requires
the previous system to continue to allow public access to past
disclosures unless the SOS migrates that data into the new
system.
8)Requires the SOS to submit to the chairs of the Joint
Legislative Budget Committee and the fiscal committees of the
Legislature a quarterly report on the progress of the
Cal-Access Project on or before December 31, 2017, and on or
before every April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 15
thereafter, as specified.
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Background
Cal-Access Issues and MapLight Partnership. Created in 1999,
Cal-Access is the 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. On November 30, 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.
The Legislature later enacted SB 1001 (Yee, Chapter 506,
Statutes of 2012), which imposed a $50 annual fee on political
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. The revenue
generated by the bill is deposited into the Political
Disclosure, Accountability, Transparency, and Access Fund (PDATA
Fund), and is available to be used to update or replace
Cal-Access. It is estimated that these fees result in
approximately $450,000 of new revenue yearly for the PDATA Fund.
Subsequent legislative efforts to upgrade or replace the system
since passage of SB 1001 have so far proved unsuccessful.
On September 3, 2015, the SOS announced the launching of Power
Search, a new open source campaign finance search engine
available on the SOS's website described as "the first step in
modernizing and upgrading Cal-Access." Power Search was
developed in conjunction with MapLight, a nonprofit, nonpartisan
research organization that tracks money's influence on politics
and funded with a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.
According to the SOS, "The new Power Search tool provides an
easy-to-use interface to search campaign finance data that is
refreshed daily from the state's existing Cal-Access system."
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Comments
1)According to the author, SB 1349 modernizes California's
online database of campaign and lobbying information to make
it user friendly and easy for the public to access in a timely
fashion. The present Cal-Access system is outdated,
disorganized and difficult to use. Secretary of State Alex
Padilla has called it "a Frankenstein's monster of code" that
is in need of "a complete rebuild." It undermines democracy
when the public cannot easily access information about
campaign and lobbying disclosures - or easily search for it.
SB 1349 directs the state to overhaul the SOS's antiquated
Cal-Access system. It establishes important guidelines for
the project, including creating a system that is data driven,
rather than form-based, and adhering to prevailing standards
for search and open data. The bill prescribes using
cost-effective, streamlined and innovative information
technology development processes to deliver an improved system
faster. It calls for a system that permits future
compatibility with local campaign finance data.
Governor Brown has written "There is no doubt the current
system - widely viewed as outdated and cumbersome - needs
upgrading." SB 1349 is supported by Secretary of State
Padilla, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the
California Business Roundtable, and numerous other labor,
business and reform groups.
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 PDATA
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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,
the Budget Conference Committee and the Legislature adopted a
proposal to provide for an additional $1 million for
Cal-Access system replacement. According to the SOS, these
augmentations will allow the office to complete a
request-for-proposal for a new system.
3) Technology Oversight Exemption Déjŕ Vu. The provision of
this bill that exempts the SOS from various information
technology requirements and from project is similar to a
provision of SB 397 (Yee, Chapter 561, Statutes of 2011),
which permitted online voter registration to begin prior to
the completion of a new statewide voter registration
database.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 3 (Yee and Lieu, 2013) would have required, among other
things, the SOS to develop a feasibility study report to outline
the technology requirements and the costs of a new statewide
electronic campaign filing and disclosure system. SB 3 was
vetoed by Governor Brown. In his veto message, the Governor
stated that other provisions of the bill were "costly and
unnecessary," but also acknowledged that the current campaign
filing and disclosure system needed to be upgraded and he
directed the Government Operations Agency (GOA) to consult the
FPPC and the SOS and make recommendations on the best way to
improve campaign disclosure. One of the options presented in
the GOA report was to replace Cal-Access.
SB 1442 (Lara, 2013) would have required, among other things,
the SOS, in consultation with the FPPC, to develop a new
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statewide Internet-based system for the electronic filing and
public display of all records filed pursuant to the PRA with
search capabilities that are data-driven and user-friendly for
members of the public. SB 1442 was also vetoed by Governor
Brown. In his veto message, the Governor stated that before an
additional information technology project is authorized, the SOS
should complete the two other projects that were underway at the
time.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
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.
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.
SUPPORT: (Verified 8/30/16)
California Business Roundtable (co-source)
California Common Cause (co-source)
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones
Secretary of State Alex Padilla
American Association of Retired Persons
American Sustainable Business Council
California Chamber of Commerce
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California Church IMPACT
California Clean Money Campaign
California Forward
California Labor Federation
California League of Conservation Voters
California Newspaper Publishers Association
California Political Treasurers Association
California Professional Firefighters
California School Employees Association
California State Council of the Service Employees International
Union
California Teachers Association
California Voices for Progress
CALPIRG
Campaign Legal Center
Courage Campaign
Fair Political Practices Commission
First Amendment Coalition
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Innovate Your State
League of Women Voters of California
MapLight
National Federation of Independent Business
National Institute on Money in State Politics
Public Citizen
Small Business Majority
UFCW Western States Council
Voices For Progress
OPPOSITION: (Verified 8/30/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 80-0, 8/29/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
SB 1349
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Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,
Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,
Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
Prepared by:Darren Chesin / E. & C.A. / (916) 651-4106
8/30/16 14:09:17
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