BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1274 (Huber)
Hearing Date: 8/27/2009 Amended: 6/30/2009
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY:
AB 1274 requires lobbyists who file periodic reports with the
Secretary of State (SOS) to include the specific bill numbers
lobbied on during the reporting period. The SOS will be
required to post the reports on its Internet Web site.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Posting of reports $50
$100 $100 General
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
Exact costs to the Secretary of State's Office will depend on
the type of information system that is developed to review,
sort, and post the lobbying reports on the Internet Web site.
There are currently over 3,000 lobbyist filings per quarter. If
the filings are reviewed and sorted, manually entered into the
database, and a report is generated and posted on the Secretary
of State's web site, costs will be approximately $100,000
annually. If, however, a more advanced system is developed
which will allow users to search lobbying firms by entering a
specific bill number, the SOS would incur one-time costs of
$150,000, and an additional $100,000 annually. If a completely
automated system is created to sort the electronically filed
documents, one-time costs would be $500,000 for system
development, and ongoing expenses would be minor.
Current law requires the Secretary of State to maintain on the
Internet an updated registry of lobbyists, lobbying firms, and
lobbyist employers. These entities must file periodic
statements disclosing, among other things, their lobbying
interests. AB 1274 requires those reports to include specific
legislative bill numbers that were lobbied on during the
reporting period.
During the 2007-2008 Legislative Session, special interests
spent $558 million to influence the legislative process. While
existing law requires disclosure, it is often difficult for the
public to identify what legislation is lobbied by each firm
since current lobbying records posted online are not linked to a
bill number.