BILL NUMBER: AB 1832
VETOED DATE: 09/24/2010
To the Members of the California State Assembly:
I am returning Assembly Bill 1832 without my signature.
This bill gradually increases the current fee that proponents of an
initiative are required to pay when submitting a draft of a measure
to the Attorney General. The increase goes from the current $200 fee
up to $2,000 in 2017.
One of the reasons stated for this legislation is that the current
fee does not cover the costs to prepare a title and summary for an
initiative. As I stated when vetoing similar legislation last year,
the fee was initially established to deter frivolous filings and I
cannot support changing the purpose of the fee from this original
intent. While the argument may be made that the current fee is no
longer a sufficient deterrent, I cannot support increasing the fee
ten-fold. While well-funded special interest groups would have no
problem paying the sharply increased fee, it will make it more
difficult for citizen groups to qualify an initiative. Therefore, I
am unable to sign this bill.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger