BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 1274
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 13, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                    AB 1274 (Huber) - As Amended:  April 23, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                              ElectionsVote:7-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill amends the Political Reform Act (PRA) to require the  
          Secretary of State (SOS), within 90 days following the end of  
          each calendar quarter, to post on his or her website a list of  
          all reported lobbying interests and a list of all lobbyist  
          employers who reported each of those lobbying interests, i.e.  
          each piece of legislation they lobbied for or against, during  
          that calendar quarter.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor annual GF costs, probably less than $50,000, for the SOS  
          to compile and post the required information four times  
          annually.

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose  .  According to the author, current law requires lobbyist  
          employers to report quarterly to the SOS on all their lobbying  
          interests.  This information is then posted on the SOS website,  
          thus making it easy for the public to review all of the lobbying  
          activities of a particular employer.  These reports are only  
          helpful, however, if a person wants to review lobby activity  
          conducted by a specific lobbyist or lobbyist employer.  If  
          someone wants to identify all lobbyists active on a specific  
          issue, they would have to review the quarterly reports of every  
          lobbyist employer.  For the 2007-08 Session, there were 3,253  
          lobbyist employers.  AB 1274 is intended to make such an  
          exercise much simpler by identifying on the SOS website all  
          lobbyist employers reporting activity on each lobbying interest  
          on a quarterly basis.









                                                                  AB 1274
                                                                  Page  2

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081