BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2007
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 28, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                    AB 2007 (Adams) - As Amended:  April 5, 2010 

          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  
          Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), by February 1 of  
          each year, to post on its website information describing all  
          gifts donated to Members of the Legislature and designated  
          employees of the Legislature in the previous calendar year, as  
          reported on lobbying disclosure reports filed pursuant to  
          existing law.

           FISCAL EFFECT  


          The FPPC will incur annual GF costs of about $90,000 for a  
          full-time analyst position and a part-time PRA specialist  
          position to review each statement filed by approximately 4,500  
          lobbying entities, extract the gift information, enter the data  
          into a spreadsheet, and regularly check the Secretary of State's  
          (SOS's) website for amendments to the reports. 


           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  .  According to the Assembly Elections Committee  
            analysis, this bill appears to be motivated, at least in part,  
            by a number of fines recently imposed by the FPPC on several  
            members of the Legislature and legislative employees for  
            failure to disclose the receipt of gifts that lobbyist  
            employers reported making to those members and employees.   
            Because the PRA requires lobbyist employers to disclose such  
            expenses on their lobbying disclosure reports, the FPPC was  
            able to compare the gifts reported as having been made by  
            lobbyist employers with the gifts reported as having been  








                                                                  AB 2007
                                                                  Page  2

            received by members of the Legislature and legislative  
            employees on their SEIs.  In cases where a lobbyist employer  
            reported making a gift to a member of the Legislature or a  
            legislative employee that was valued at $50 or more, and the  
            member or employee did not report that gift on his or her SEI,  
            the FPPC initiated an investigation and pursued enforcement  
            actions.

           2)Is This Bill Redundant  ?  It is likely that the vast majority  
            of gifts reported as having been given to members of the  
            Legislature and legislative employees are already reported  
            electronically and immediately posted to the website of the  
            SOS.  Given this fact, the desirability for having the FPPC  
            also post this information as well is unclear, particularly  
            given the commission's stagnant staffing levels and the  
            state's budget pressures.  

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