BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 6
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 13, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                    AB 6 (Saldana) - As Amended:  April 28, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires professional petition firms-entities that pay  
          individuals to circulate petitions and gather signatures to  
          qualify state or local initiatives-to register annually with the  
          Secretary of State (SOS).  This bill also:

          1)Requires these firms to pay a registration fee to the SOS, who  
            must use the fee revenues to maintain a directory of the firms  
            on its Website and defray other expenses associated with the  
            registration requirement.

          2)Requires a member of a professional petition firm to review  
            with every paid petition circulator, as a condition of hiring,  
            the law relating to obtaining petition signatures and to  
            submit of copy of such training materials to the SOS along  
            with a statement signed by each paid petition circulator and  
            the individual who conducted the law review.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Likely minor costs to the SOS to establish and maintain the  
          registration system, at least partially offset by fees paid by  
          registrants.  The SOS indicates that there are currently less  
          than 20 petition firms operating in the state.

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose .  According to the author, the initiative process has  
          shifted from what was originally envisioned to be a  
          volunteer-based effort to a system where large sums of money are  
          required to qualify a measure for the ballot. Qualifying an  
          initiative now requires paid signature gathers, that are usually  








                                                                  AB 6
                                                                  Page  2

          employed by a professional petition firm at a cost totaling $1  
          million to $3 million per petition.  The author indicates that  
          the state unfortunately lacks a mechanism to verify whether or  
          not petition gatherers are provided with sufficient  
          understanding of the laws that regulate this activity.  This  
          bill is intended to ensures that proper training of these laws  
          is provided.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081