BILL ANALYSIS
AB 436
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 31, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 436 (Saldana) - As Introduced: February 24, 2009
SUBJECT : Elections: initiatives.
SUMMARY : Increases the fee that the proponents of an
initiative measure are required to pay at the time of submitting
the draft of the measure to the Attorney General (AG) from $200
to $2,000. Specifies that the fee revenues shall be used for
the reimbursement of the costs incurred by the AG for preparing
the title and summary of the proposed initiative measure.
Requires the AG annually to review this fee and adjust it to
reflect any increase in the California Consumer Price Index
(CPI).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes a process for the AG to prepare a summary of the
chief purposes and points of a proposed measure. Requires the
AG to provide a copy of the title and summary to the Secretary
of State within 15 days after receipt of the final version of
a proposed initiative measure, or if a fiscal estimate or
opinion is to be included, within 15 days after receipt of the
fiscal estimate or opinion prepared by the Department of
Finance (DOF) and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee
(JLBC).
2)Requires proponents of any initiative measure, at the time of
submitting the draft of the measure to the AG, to pay a fee of
two hundred dollars ($200), which shall be placed in a trust
fund in the office of the Treasurer and refunded to the
proponents if the measure qualifies for the ballot within two
years from the date the summary is furnished to the
proponents. If the measure does not qualify within that
period, the fee shall be immediately paid into the General
Fund of the state.
3)Specifies that in preparing a title and summary, the AG shall
determine whether the substance thereof, if adopted, would
affect the revenues or expenditures of the state or local
government, and if he or she determines that it would, he or
she shall include in the title either the estimate of the
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amount of any increase or decrease in revenues or costs to the
state or local government.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
In California, proponents must submit the text of a measure
to the state Attorney General's office and pay a $200
filing fee before they can begin circulating petitions for
signatures. Originally set in 1943, this $200 fee was
intended to cover the administrative costs of analyzing and
verifying petitions and to discourage frivolous proposals.
The filing fee is then refunded to proponents if the
measure qualifies for the ballot (Elections Code Section
9004), and this practice is unaffected by the provisions of
this bill.
AB 436 addresses the drastic disparity between the
historical cost to file an initiative measure and the
actual cost incurred by our state's Attorney General to
prepare a measure's title and summary. The initiative
process in California has radically changed since its
inception in 1911 and the designation of its filing fee in
1943, and there is a pressing need to balance the cost to
proponents to file initiative measures with the cost to the
state to prepare them.
The current filing fee for initiative measures no longer
covers the Attorney General's administrative costs. For
2007-2008, the median cost to the Attorney General to
prepare titles and summaries for initiative measures was
$3,157; of those measures, one of the most expensive was
Proposition 9 ("The Victims' Bill of Rights Act of 2008:
Marsy's Law") which bore a price tag of $15,504.50. Since
Proposition 9 qualified for the ballot, its $200 filing fee
was refunded to the proponents. Adjusted for inflation,
the value of the $200 filing fee in 1943 corresponds to
approximately $2,441 today.
The current fee also fails to discourage frivolous
propositions as it could in 1943. Oftentimes, initiative
proponents submit multiple, incrementally different
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versions of a single initiative measure for preparation of
their titles and summaries while they poll test which
version is most likely to garner the necessary votes to
pass at the ballot. This practice - known to many as
"ballot title shopping" - is facilitated by our state's
nominal filing fee and costs the Attorney General far more
to prepare each version of a measure than what the fees
offset. For example, four versions of Prop. 9 were
prepared by the Attorney General in 2007-2008 at a total
cost of $27,231. Since only one of the four versions was
pursued to qualify for the ballot, proponents paid a mere
$600 for the state to provide its service.
2)Attorney General's Process for Preparing Ballot Summaries and
Titles : Before circulating a measure, initiative proponents
must first submit their proposal to the AG's office. The AG
obtains a fiscal analysis from the DOF and the JLBC and then
provides the proponent with a title and summary that must be
placed at the top of each petition. Current law states that
proponents must pay a $200 fee to the AG, a fee that is
refunded if the initiative qualifies for the ballot.
3)Increasing Number of Initiatives and Ballot Summaries:
According to the AG's office, there has been a steady increase
in the number of initiative proposals submitted in the last
few decades. In the 1960s, just 47 proposed initiatives were
submitted to the AG for a title and summary to be prepared - a
number that more than tripled to 180 proposed initiative
measures in the 1970s. In the 1980s, 282 proposed initiatives
were submitted to the AG, while in the 1990s, 391 were
submitted - more than double the number that was submitted
just two decades earlier. The number of initiatives submitted
to the AG for preparation of a title and summary has continued
to increase this decade, with 545 measures submitted to the AG
since 2000, with 9 months remaining in the decade. Although
reports show that there has been a recent decline in the
number of voter approved initiatives, the AG is still required
to develop a title and summary for each initiative, regardless
of whether the initiative qualified for the ballot.
4)How Do Other States Administer Filing Fees for Initiative
Petitions : According to the National Conference of State
Legislatures, there are a number of ways in which states have
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addressed the issue of filing fees for initiative petitions.
States like Arizona, Colorado, Illinois and Ohio do not
require an initiative filing fee, while others like Alaska,
Mississippi, Washington and Wyoming require anywhere from $5
to $500 for filing fees. Only Alaska and California allow for
refunds if petitions are properly filed or if petitions
qualify for the ballot within two years from the date the
summary is furnished, respectively.
The Florida Legislature requires elections officials to
collect, in advance, the sum of 10 cents for each signature
checked or the actual cost of verifying such signatures,
whichever is less, by the person or organization submitting
the petition. However, if a person or organization seeking to
have an issue placed upon the ballot cannot pay such charges
without imposing an undue burden on personal resources they
can, upon written certification of such inability given under
oath to the elections official, be entitled to have the
signatures verified at no charge. In most cases, a person or
organization is required to collect signatures of at least one
percent of the total number of registered voters of that
geographical area in order to qualify a ballot measure.
5)Will this Bill Limit Access to the Ballot for Some
Organizations ? Proponents of an initiative proposal now pay a
$200 filing fee, which is refunded if the initiative qualifies
for the ballot. The fee's primary purpose is to discourage
frivolous proposals, and it also helps to defray some of the
administrative costs associated with processing initiatives.
Although the AG's cost to prepare the title and summary of
each filed initiative has increased over the years, increasing
the filing fee to $2,000 could limit access to the initiative
process.
6)Possible Amendment : Although the $2,000 fee that is proposed
by this bill is less than the fee would be if the original fee
had been indexed to reflect a change in inflation, an increase
in the filing fee from $200 to $2,000 is a sudden and
significant increase, rather than an incremental or gradual
one. As such, the author and the committee may wish to
consider whether it would be preferable to increase the fee by
a smaller amount, and to direct the AG to adjust this fee in
the future to reflect any change in inflation.
7)Arguments in Support : The American Federation of State,
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County and Municipal Employees supports this bill because "it
acknowledges the hard work the Attorney General puts in to
titling and summarizing potential initiatives. As initiatives
become increasingly popular, the Attorney General's office
will become more inundated with work. The revenue from this
fee will allow the Attorney General's office to meet the
demand for their work on initiatives."
8)Arguments in Opposition : In opposition to this bill, Capitol
Resource Family Impact maintains that the legislation" would
deter California voters from filing initiatives, and making
their voices heard, by increasing the deposit tenfold. The
AG's office is currently able to prepare titles and summaries
without this large $2,000 reimbursement. While many offices
would doubtless welcome additional money, this particular fee
is both unnecessary and unjust to California voters."
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
Opposition
Capitol Resource Family Impact
Analysis Prepared by : Qiana Charles / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094