BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, REAPPORTIONMENT AND
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair
BILL NO: AB 436 HEARING DATE: 7/7/09
AUTHOR: SALDANA ANALYSIS BY: Frances Tibon
Estoista
AMENDED: 4/14/09
FISCAL: YES
SUBJECT
Elections: initiatives
DESCRIPTION
Existing law establishes a process for the Attorney General
(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 (SOS)
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).
Existing law requires proponents of any initiative measure,
at the time of submitting the draft of the measure to the
AG, to pay a fee of $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.
Existing law 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 amount of any increase
or decrease in revenues or costs to the state or local
government.
This bill incrementally increases the current fee that
proponents of an initiative measure are required to pay at
the time of submitting the draft of the measure to the AG
from $200 to $2,000. Specifies that 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.
This bill establishes the following fee schedule:
$500 beginning in 2010;
$1,000 beginning in 2012;
$1,500 beginning in 2014; and,
$2,000 beginning in 2016.
This bill requires the AG in 2018 and every two years
thereafter, to adjust the fee for inflation.
This bill eliminates the refund 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.
BACKGROUND
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
AB 436 (SALDANA) Page
2
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 qualifies
for the ballot.
In California, proponents of an initiative measure must
submit the text of a measure to the AG's office for
preparation of a title and summary and pay a $200 filing
fee bore they can circulate petitions for signatures.
Originally set in 1943, the filing fee was intended to
cover the administrative costs of the initiative process to
the state and to discourage frivolous proposals.
Over the course of the sixty-six years since the initiative
filing fee was designated, the nature of the initiative
process has changed dramatically. Data provided by the
AG's office shows the median cost in 2007-2008 to title and
summarize each of the 126 initiatives for that cycle was
$3,157. In total, the state received $22,800 in filing
fees but it spent $418,459 of taxpayer money (General Fund)
and 2933.75 hours of paid state attorney time to title and
summarize all 126 measures. One measure from the November
2008 General Election cost nearly $20,000 to title and
summarize; since the fee was refunded, the entire cost was
paid through the General Fund.
COMMENTS
1. 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, 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
AB 436 (SALDANA) Page
3
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.
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. 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 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
AB 436 (SALDANA) Page
4
qualify a ballot measure.
4. 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 however incremental, could potentially limit
access to the initiative process.
PRIOR ACTION
Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee: 5-2
Assembly Appropriations Committee: 11-5
Assembly Floor: 47-28
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
(AFSCME)
California Common Cause
League of Women Voters of California
Oppose: Capitol Resource Family Impact
AB 436 (SALDANA) Page
5