BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1181
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1181 (Huber)
As Amended April 28, 2009
2/3 vote
ELECTIONS 6-1 APPROPRIATIONS 14-2
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|Ayes:|Fong, Bill Berryhill, |Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, Charles |
| |Coto, Mendoza, Saldana, | |Calderon, Davis, Duvall, |
| |Swanson | |Krekorian, Hall, Harkey, |
| | | |John A. Perez, Price, |
| | | |Skinner, Solorio, Audra |
| | | |Strickland, Torlakson |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+---------------------------|
|Nays:|Adams |Nays:|Nielsen, Miller |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Lowers the monetary thresholds which trigger mandatory
electronic reporting of campaign contributions and expenditures
by candidates, officeholders, committees, major donors, and
slate mailer organizations. Specifically, this bill :
1)Lowers, from $50,000 to $25,000, the cumulative amount of
contributions received, expenditures made, or loans made or
received by a candidate or committee in connection with a
state elective office or a state measure before that candidate
or committee is required to file those reports online or
electronically.
2)Lowers, from $50,000 to $25,000, the cumulative amount of
contributions received or expenditures made by a general
purpose committee to support or oppose candidates for any
elective state office or state measures, before that committee
is required to file those reports online or electronically.
3)Lowers, from $50,000 to $25,000, the cumulative amount of
reportable payments received or made for the purposes of
producing slate mailers by a slate mailer organization before
that slate mailer organization is required to file campaign
reports online or electronically.
4)Lowers, from $5,000 in a calendar quarter to $2,500 in a
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calendar quarter, the amount of reportable payments, expenses,
contributions, gifts, or other items that must be made by a
lobbyist, lobbying firm, or lobbyist employer before that
lobbyist, firm, or employer is required to file periodic
lobbying disclosure reports online or electronically.
5)Eliminates the requirement that statewide candidates,
committees formed to support or oppose statewide measures, and
state general purpose committees file a paper copy of all
campaign reports with Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties.
Eliminates the requirement that members of the Legislature and
Board of Equalization, court of appeal justices, superior
court judges, and candidates for those offices file a paper
copy of campaign reports with the elections official in the
county with the largest number of registered voters in the
district.
6)Requires candidates for the Board of Administration of the
Public Employees Retirement System to file campaign reports
online or electronically with the Secretary of State (SOS).
7)Eliminates the requirement that a paper copy of a late
contribution report or a late independent expenditure report
be filed if such report is submitted by online or electronic
transmission to the SOS.
8)Requires lobbyist registration statements and amendments to
those statements to be filed both by online or electronic
means and in a paper format.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, no net fiscal impact to the SOS, with whom campaign
reports are filed.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "Senate Bill 49 (Karnette,
1997) created online disclosure of campaign reports in order to
cast public sunshine on the campaign contribution statements and
political activities of state leaders and lobbyists. . . .
However, SB 49 is limited in scope. For example, as long as
campaigns spend or receive less than $50,000 per year, their
activities are not subject to online public review. Similarly,
lobbyists or lobbyist employers are not required to submit
electronic disclosure reports of their expenditures unless they
spend over $5,000 on political lobbying. Thus, thousands of
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candidates, donors, campaign officials and special interests are
still allowed to submit disclosure forms that are not available
online. Consequently, California currently does not meet the
[Political Reform Act's] goal of keeping voters 'fully
informed.'"
SB 49 (Karnette), Chapter 866, Statutes of 1997, the Online
Disclosure Act of 1997, required the SOS to develop a process
whereby reports and statements required under the Political
Reform Act (PRA) could be filed online and viewed by the public.
SB 49 also required certain candidates, committees, slate
mailer organizations, lobbyists, lobbyist employers, and
lobbying firms to file campaign reports online.
Under existing law, the SOS is required to determine and
publicly disclose when the online and electronic campaign
disclosure systems are operating effectively. Despite the fact
that legislation requiring the development of an online campaign
disclosure system was enacted in 1997, the SOS has never made a
public determination that the online campaign disclosure system
is operating effectively. Given that it has been 12 years since
the Legislature required the creation of an online campaign
disclosure system, and given the fact that the SOS still has not
determined that the system is operating effectively, it is
unclear whether it is timely and appropriate to expand the
situations under which reports are required to be filed using
that system.
California voters passed an initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974
that created the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and
codified significant restrictions and prohibitions on
candidates, officeholders and lobbyists. That initiative is
commonly known as the PRA. Amendments to the PRA that are not
submitted to the voters, such as those contained in this bill,
must further the purposes of the initiative and require a
two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature.
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
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