BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  ACA 1
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 20, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                  ACA 1 (Silva) - As Introduced:  December 1, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                               
          AppropriationsVote:

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This constitutional amendment would require a 2/3 vote of the  
          Assembly and the Senate for every bill that "would result in  
          more than $150,000 of annual expenditures" by the state, as  
          determined by the Department of Finance (DOF). This bill would  
          require DOF to analyze every bill and every amendment to every  
          bill and provide the Assembly and Senate Appropriations  
          Committees, in writing, a determination, as whether the bill  
          would result in an annual expenditure of more than $150,000.
           
           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Significant annual GF costs, in excess of $1 million for  
            professional fiscal staff, to the DOF to analyze every bill  
            and every amendment in both houses. Currently DOF analyzes  
            only a portion of the bills introduced each year. Depending on  
            the time of year, at some Appropriations hearings, for  
            example, DOF may have analyses on as few as 10% of the bills  
            before the committee. During peak budget periods, DOF all but  
            stops doing bill analyses to attend to state budget issues. 

          2)One-time GF costs of about $220,000 to include an analysis and  
            arguments for and against the measure in the statewide voter  
            pamphlet. The Secretary of State estimates a cost of about  
            $55,000 per ballot page for statewide elections.

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . The author contends this bill will help the state  
            find long-term solutions to its budget problems. 









                                                                  ACA 1
                                                                  Page  2

            According to the author, "The Legislature routinely passes  
            measures that have direct or indirect costs to the state and  
            have long term cost pressures on state government. Hundreds of  
            measures are passed and signed each year that add to our  
            endemic budget crisis and the duties and functions of  
            government are expanded with every measure enacted?.

            "ACA 1 will make the legislative process and funding  
            mechanisms more transparent and our expenditures more  
            responsible by judging the real costs of otherwise simple  
            majority vote measures."

           2)Currently any bill that contains a GF appropriation requires a  
            2/3 vote.  This bill would expand this requirement to include  
            any bill that would result in any expenditure in excess of  
            $150,000, as determined by DOF.
           3)Other States.  According to the National Conference on State  
            Legislatures, as of October 2008, only two other states  
            require more than a majority vote to pass a state budget  
            (Arkansas and Rhode Island) and only three states require more  
            than a majority vote for appropriations (California - for GF  
            appropriations, South Dakota, and Arkansas - for non education  
            and highway spending). 


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081