BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1202 (DeSaulnier)
Hearing Date: 05/27/2010 Amended: 04/12/2010
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: ER&CA: 3-2
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 1202 requires the Secretary of State to
include in a ballot pamphlet a list of the five highest
contributors to each primarily formed committee supporting each
state measure and the total amount of their contributions.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Ballot information ----unknown, potentially $66 per
statewide election--- General
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STAFF COMMENTS: SUSPENSE FILE.
To the extent that the additional information required under the
provisions of this bill extends the length of the ballot and
requires extra pages, there would be additional expenses of
approximately $66,000 per page for printing and mailing costs.
However, the Secretary of State's office formats the Voter
Information Guide in 16 page increments so oftentimes there are
blank pages that could be used for these purposes.
The statewide ballot pamphlet is currently required to contain
the following information:
a) A complete copy of each measure
b) A copy of the arguments and rebuttals for and against each
state measure
c) A copy of the analysis of each state measure by the
Legislative Analyst
d) Other information that the Secretary of State determines
will make the ballot pamphlet easier to understand such as
tables of contents, indexes, art or graphics.
SB 1202 will add the requirement that the pamphlet include,
immediately below the analysis by the Legislative Analyst, a
list of the five highest contributors to each primarily formed
committee supporting each state measure and the total amount of
each of their contributions. If a contributor is a committee
controlled by a candidate, the name of the candidate must be
listed and if a contributor is a sponsored committee, the name
of the sponsor shall be listed.
Also required is a statement that the list reflects only the
highest contributors of contributions received before the 110
days before Election Day. The 110 day cut-off period
accommodates the schedule by which the statewide ballot pamphlet
must be finalized prior to printing. Since the expenses
associated with qualifying a statewide
SB 1202 (DeSaulnier)
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initiative usually exceed $1 million, the ballot pamphlet would
disclose, among others, those entities responsible for funding
the qualification effort.
Current law already requires that any advertisement for or
against any ballot measure to include a disclosure statement
identifying any person whose cumulative contributions are
$50,000 or more.
The following list indicates the number of ballot measures which
were on statewide ballots for elections held during the last
several years:
June 2010 - (will be five)
May 2009 - six
November 2008 - twelve
June 2008 - two
November 2006 - thirteen
There are several dozen initiatives that are currently cleared
for circulation and which could be eligible to appear on the
November 2010 ballot.