BILL ANALYSIS
AB 436
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 436 (Saldana)
As Amended September 4, 2009
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |47-28|(May 28, 2009) |SENATE: |21-18|(September 9, |
| | | | | |2009) |
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Original Committee Reference: E. & R.
SUMMARY : 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 Attorney
General (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. 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; and,
d) $2,000 beginning in 2016.
2)Requires the AG in 2018 and every two years thereafter, to
adjust the fee for inflation.
The Senate amendments :
1)Restore a provision of existing law that allows for an
initiative filing fee to be refund to a proponent if the
measure qualifies for the ballot within two years.
2)Move the section of the Elections Code in which the policy of
this bill is contained to avoid chaptering problems with AB
753 (Adams).
3)Make technical non-substantive changes.
AB 436
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AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was similar to the version
passed by the Senate.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : 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. 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."
Before circulating a measure, initiative proponents must first
submit their proposal to the AG's office. The AG obtains a
fiscal analysis from the Department of Finance and the Joint
Legislative Budget Committee 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.
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
AB 436
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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 8 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.
Analysis Prepared by : Qiana Charles / E. & R. / (916)
319-2094
FN: 0003051