BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1181
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1181 (Huber)
As Amended August 26, 2009
2/3 vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-1 |(May 28, 2009) |SENATE: |27-9 |(April 15, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: E. & R.
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 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
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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.
The Senate amendments :
1)Require candidates for superior court to file campaign reports
online or electronically with the SOS if the cumulative amount of
contributions received, expenditures made, loans made, or loans
received by the candidate is $25,000 or more.
2)Provide that a candidate for elective state office who is not also
a candidate for local elective office who files campaign reports
by online or electronic means with the SOS need not file a copy of
those reports with a local filing officer.
3)Add double-jointing language to avoid chaptering problems with AB
1514 (Hayashi), and make various technical and clarifying changes.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill was similar to the version
approved 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, "Senate Bill 49 (Karnette, 1997)
created online disclosure of campaign reports in order to cast
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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 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.'"
Under existing law, the SOS is required to determine and publicly
disclose when 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 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 Political Reform Act (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
FN:
0002539