BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1181|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1181
Author: Huber (D)
Amended: 8/26/09 in Senate
Vote: 27
SENATE ELEC., REAP. & CONST. AMEND. COMMITTEE : 4-1, 7/7/09
AYES: Hancock, DeSaulnier, Liu, Strickland
NOES: Walters
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-1, 5/28/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Political Reform Act of 1974: statements and
reports
SOURCE : Secretary of State
DIGEST : This bill lowers the monetary thresholds which
trigger mandatory electronic reporting of campaign
contributions and expenditures by candidates,
officeholders, committees, major donors, and slate mailer
organizations. It also 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 paper copies of campaign reports
with the elections official of the county with the largest
number of registered voters in the districts affected and
instead requires candidates for the Board of Administration
of the Public Employees retirement System to file campaign
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reports online or electronically with the Secretary of
State.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/26/09 addressed
"chaptering-out" problems with another bill and to make a
conforming change to an existing Fair Political Practices
Commission (FPPC) regulation. Specifically, these
amendments addressed a "chaptering-out" problem with AB
1514 (Hayashi) and make a conforming change to an existing
FPPC regulation regarding where specified campaign
committees are required to file their reports.
ANALYSIS : This bill 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
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
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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 with the SOS unless filing in
proper format as no longer required by law.
Comments
According to the author's office, "Senate Bill 49
(Karnette), of 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 candidates,
donors, campaign officials and special interests are still
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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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, no net
fiscal impact to the SOS, with who campaign reports are
filed.
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SUPPORT : (Verified 8/19/09)
Secretary of State, Debra Bowen (source)
California Commerce Cause
California Common Cause
CALPIRG
League of Women Voters of California
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher,
Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber,
Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, Logue,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Monning, Nava, Nestande,
Niello, John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino,
Price, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres,
Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass
NOES: Nielsen
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fuller, Hagman, Miller
DLW:do 8/27/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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