BILL ANALYSIS
AB 436
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 436 (Saldana) - As Amended: April 14, 2009
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:5-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill incrementally increases the current $200 fee that
proponents of an initiative measure must pay when submitting a
draft of the measure to the Attorney General (AG) for
preparation of the initiative title and summary. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Establishes the following fee schedule:
a) $500 beginning in 2010.
b) $1,000 beginning in 2012.
c) $1,500 beginning in 2014.
d) $2,000 beginning in 2016.
2)Requires the AG, in 2018 and every two years thereafter, to
adjust the fee for inflation.
3)Eliminates the refunding of an initiative filing fee to a
proponent if a measure qualifies for the ballot within two
years after the AG's summary is furnished to the proponents.
FISCAL EFFECT
Minor annual increased revenue to help offset the AG's costs for
preparing the title and summary for proposed initiatives. Based
on the average of 59 proposals submitted annually during this
decade, additional revenue would initially total $18,000 in 2010
and would reach $106,000 in 2016. The increased cost to
initiative proponents may reduce the number of proposal
submitted, which would both reduce these revenues and the AG's
costs associated with this workload. There will also be minor
cost savings by eliminating the refunding provision for
AB 436
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qualifying initiatives.
COMMENTS
1)Background and Purpose . Before statewide initiative petitions
can be circulated for signatures, initiative proponents must
submit the text of the measure to the AG's office and pay a
$200 fee. This fee level was established in 1943 and was
intended to cover the AG's administrative costs to prepare the
initiative for circulation and to discourage frivolous
proposals.
According to the author, AB 436 is intended to address the
large disparity between the current fee and the AG's costs for
preparing the title and summary. The author notes that for
2007-08, the AG's median cost for this work was $3,157 per
proposal. Even adjusted for inflation, the $200 fee
established 66 years ago would equal only $2,441 today-still
less than the average cost. The author argues that the
current low fee also fails to discourage frivolous
propositions. According to the author, initiative proponents
often submit multiple, incrementally different versions of a
measure while they poll test which version is most likely to
be successful. The author believes this "ballot title
shopping" is facilitated by the nominal filing fee. For
example, the four versions of Proposition 9 (The Victim's Bill
of Rights Act of 2008) prepared by the AG cost $27,231. Since
only one of the four versions was pursued to qualify for the
ballot, proponents paid only $600 for the state to provide its
service.
2)Opposition . The 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."
It should be noted, however, that for any person or
organization genuinely attempting to qualify an initiative for
a statewide ballot, the filing fee, even at $2,000, would
likely represent a miniscule portion of an initiative
proponent's total costs.
AB 436
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Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081