BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
2007 (Adams)
Hearing Date: 06/28/2010 Amended: 06/21/2010
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA 5-0
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 2007 requires the Fair Political Practices
Commission to post on its Internet Web site information
describing all gifts, as well as the dollar amounts of those
gifts, that were donated to Members of the Legislature and
designated employees of the Legislature in the previous calendar
year. The bill further requires that information to be
searchable by entering a recipient's name.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
FPPC admin costs $50 $100
$100 General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to
the Suspense file.
The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) indicates annual
costs of approximately $100,000 for one full-time analyst
position and a part-time Political Reform Act specialist
position to review each statement filed by approximately 4,500
lobbying entities, extract the gift information, enter the data,
and regularly check the Secretary of State website for
amendments to the already filed reports.
AB 2007 requires the FPPC to post, on or before February 1 of
each year, information describing all gifts donated to Members
of the Legislature and their designated staff during the
previous calendar year. Recent amendments require the data to
be searchable by entering a recipient's name.
The intent of this bill is to ensure that Members of the
Legislature and their designated employees properly fill out
their Statements of Economic Interest forms each year. Often
times, legislators or designated employees attend an event while
not partaking in food or drink, or, sometimes RSVP to an event
but do not attend. If the donor of the gift reports the
individual as participating, but does not send a courtesy letter
to that individual, the Member or employee might not know to
report that gift. The individual only becomes aware of the
reported gift once an FPPC violation notice has been issued.
Most of the information required in this bill is already
available through the Secretary of State's web site, since
lobbying entities are required to file disclosure reports
electronically if the amount of reportable payments, expenses,
contributions, or gifts total $5,000 or more in any calendar
quarter. The FPPC would extrapolate the information pertaining
to Legislative Members and their designated employees and post
that information on its own Internet Web site in a searchable
format.
AB 2007 furthers the purpose of the Political Reform Act and
will, therefore, require a 2/3 vote on the Senate Floor.