BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1730
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 17, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING
Paul Fong, Chair
AB 1730 (Olsen) - As Amended: March 26, 2012
SUBJECT : Legislative Transparency Act.
SUMMARY : Makes various substantive changes to provisions of
law governing the operations of the Legislature. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires the Assembly, Senate, and Joint Rules Committees to
provide each Member of the Legislature a monthly report of
that Member's office budget. Requires the budget report to
include all allocations and expenditures, including caucus
allocations, travel expenses, office rent, and staff salaries.
Requires the monthly budget report for a Member who chairs a
committee to include any allocations and expenditures related
to that committee, identified in a manner that permits the
Member to report those allocations and expenditures separately
from his or her office spending.
2)Requires each Member of the Legislature to publish the monthly
budget report provided to him or her pursuant to the
provisions described above on his or her Internet website.
Requires the monthly budget report for each committee to be
published on the committee's Internet website.
3)Prohibits a vote from being taken in either house of the
Legislature on a bill until that bill, in its present form,
has been made available to the public on an Internet website
for at least 72 hours, unless the house dispenses with this
requirement by a two-thirds vote of the membership.
4)Defines a "legislative deadline contribution" as a
contribution of $100 or more that is made to a Member of the
Legislature or the controlled committee of a Member of the
Legislature within seven days prior to any of the following
deadlines:
a) The June 15 deadline to pass a Budget bill;
b) Any deadline for the passage of a bill by the house in
which the bill was introduced; and,
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c) Any date by which the Legislature is required to adjourn
for a joint recess in an odd-numbered year to reconvene in
an even-numbered year, or the date for the Legislature to
adjourn sine die in an even-numbered year.
5)Requires each Member of the Legislature and controlled
committee of a Member of the Legislature that receives a
legislative deadline contribution, as defined, to report that
contribution within 24 hours of the time the contribution is
received. Requires the report to be filed with each office
with which the Member or committee is required to file its
next campaign statement, and provides that a report filed
pursuant to this provision is in addition to any other
campaign statement required to be filed under existing law.
Provide that a legislative deadline contribution does not need
to be reported if it is not cashed, negotiated, or deposited,
and is returned to the contributor within 24 hours of its
receipt.
6)Requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to submit the provisions
of this bill governing the reporting of legislative deadline
contributions to the voters for their consideration.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Pursuant to the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA), provides
that legislative records are open to inspection, and any
person has a right to inspect any legislative record, with
certain exceptions.
2)Requires the Assembly Rules Committee, the Senate Rules
Committee, and the Joint Rules Committee, for the period
ending on November 30 of each year, to prepare a report to the
public of all expenditures made from the operating fund
subject to their direction and control. Requires the report to
be made available to the public by November 30 of the year
following that for which it is prepared. Requires the report
to include, but not be limited to, a list of expenditures for
each Member and committee of the Legislature in the following
categories:
a) Out-of-state travel and living expense reimbursement and
in-state travel and living expense reimbursement;
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b) Automotive expenses;
c) Building utilities, maintenance, and rent;
d) Telephone;
e) Postage;
f) Printing;
g) Office supplies;
h) Newsletters;
i) Per diem for attendance at legislative sessions;
j) Employee salaries and benefits;
aa) Employee travel and per diem;
bb) Equipment and furniture;
cc) Telegraph;
dd) Freight;
ee) Publications;
ff) Study contracts and any other contract not reported
under any other category;
gg) Meals;
hh) Ceremonies and events;
ii) First-class air travel;
jj) Automotive repairs;
aaa) Office alterations; and,
bbb) All other expenditures.
3)Constitutionally prohibits a bill from being passed unless it
is read by title on three days in each house, but provides
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that the house may dispense with this requirement by a vote of
two-thirds of the membership of the house.
4)Constitutionally prohibits a bill from being passed until the
bill with amendments has been printed and distributed to
members.
5)Requires elected officers, candidates, and committees to file
semiannual and other periodic campaign statements, with
certain exceptions.
6)Requires all candidates and committees that are required to
file campaign reports in connection with a state elective
office or state measure to file those reports online or
electronically if the cumulative amount of contributions
received, expenditures made, loans made, or loans received is
$25,000 or more.
7)Requires a committee that receives a contribution of $1,000 or
more, after the closing date of the last campaign statement
required to be filed prior to the election but before election
day, to report the contribution within 24 hours of the time
the contribution is received.
8)Requires a committee that is required to file campaign reports
electronically to report any contribution of $1,000 or more
received less than 90 days prior to an election within 24
hours of the time the contribution is received.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. State-mandated local program;
contains a no new duties (voter approved) disclaimer.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of the Bill : According to the author:
Each year, the Legislature passes bills requiring
greater transparency of various agencies and local
governments. However, it fails to hold itself
accountable to those same standards of open,
transparent, citizen-driven government. The citizens
of California deserve a transparent government and
legislative body. They should be given the opportunity
to review all bills for at least 72-hours before they
are voted on. Only then, can we claim to have a true
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representative government where people have the
ability to voice their opinions on all issues.
In addition citizens should have the right to review
members' office and committee budgets in order to
facilitate transparency and responsible use of
taxpayer dollars.
Finally, the Legislature is driven by deadlines when
hundreds of bills are passed in either house. Members
of the public deserve to see campaign funds received
during these most critical times of the year.
AB 1730, also known as the Legislative Transparency
Act, will increase transparency in the Legislature by
requiring all bills to be in print and available
online for at least 72-hours before legislative
actions. The Act also requires all members of the
Legislature to post their office budgets each month on
their state websites. Finally, AB 1730 requires
24-hour online campaign reporting of funds received
over $100 dollars during the week of legislative house
of origin, budget and end of session deadlines. Such
reports are filed with the Secretary of State.
AB 1730 will end the midnight votes on backroom deals
and bring greater transparency to the taxpayers. This
will allow all stakeholders to be at the table and
voice their concerns or support. We should hold
ourselves to the same transparency standards that we
pass onto local governments and other agencies and
organizations.
2)Constitutional Issues : Article IV, Section 7(a) of the
California Constitution provides that "�e]ach house �of the
Legislature] shall choose its officers and adopt rules for its
proceedings." Pursuant to that authority, the Legislature has
adopted rules that govern the operations of the houses of the
Legislature and that establish procedures for the
consideration and passage of bills. California courts have
ruled that the Legislature cannot, through statute, infringe
upon that authority.
In People's Advocate, Inc. v. Superior Court (1986), 181
Cal.App.3d 316, the court found that various statutory
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provisions enacted through the initiative process that sought
to control the operations of the Legislature were invalid. In
striking down those statutory provisions, the court wrote that
a house could not "estop itself or a future house by use of
the statutory form from adopting any rule the substance of
which is within the powers exclusively delegated to it by the
Constitution." The court went on to write that "�a] house
'has power to adopt any procedure and to change it at any time
and without notice. It cannot tie its own hands by
establishing rules which, as a matter of power purely, it
cannot at any time change and disregard. Its action in any
given case is the only criterion by which to determine the
rule of proceeding adopted for that case'" (quoting French v.
Senate (1905), 146 Cal. 604).
Although the Legislature has previously enacted legislation that
sought to govern legislative procedure (see Government Code
Section 9500 et seq.), the court in People's Advocate rejected
the suggestion that such an action was legally significant,
and instead found that "�a] rule of internal proceeding made
in the guise of a statute is nonetheless a rule 'adopted' by
the house and may be changed by an internal rule." In light
of this, if policymakers wish to require that bills be in
print for 72 hours prior to taking a vote in either house of
the Legislature, that requirement should be established
through a constitutional amendment or through a change to the
Joint Rules.
3)Availability of Records : As noted above, the LORA provides
that legislative records are open to inspection, and any
person has a right to inspect any legislative record, with
certain exceptions. Additionally, existing law requires the
Rules Committee of each house of the Legislature to prepare an
annual report to the public of all expenditures made from the
operating fund subject to their direction and control. Last
year, a number of news organizations filed LORA requests with
the Assembly Rules Committee requesting information about
budget allowances and expenditures for members of the Assembly
and for Assembly committees. The Assembly Rules Committee
denied these requests on the grounds that the records were
exempt from disclosure under the provisions of the LORA.
Subsequent to that denial, the news organizations filed a
lawsuit against the Assembly Rules Committee in the Sacramento
County Superior Court. The court ruled that the documents
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that were requested by the news organizations should have been
provided pursuant to the LORA, and issued a writ of mandate
ordering the Assembly Rules Committee to produce those budget
documents. The court's ruling was not appealed, and the
Assembly Rules Committee released documents that were
responsive to the LORA requests earlier this year. Given the
court's ruling, and the Rules Committee's subsequent release
of documents describing budget allowances and expenditures, it
appears that information about budget allowances to members of
the Legislature and legislative committees will now generally
be available to entities that request that information under
the LORA. Additionally, since last year, the Assembly has
been posting expenditure reports on its website on a quarterly
basis, and the Assembly has posted quarterly reports listing
member and staff salaries for several years. In light of
these facts, it would appear that information regarding member
and committee budgets is already publicly available.
4)Overly Burdensome ? Under the Political Reform Act of 1974
(PRA), there are two general types of reporting requirements.
The first type of report is referred to as a periodic report.
Periodic reports must be filed according to a specified time
schedule for all similarly-situated candidates and committees,
regardless of the amount of campaign activity during the
period of time covered by the report. These reports generally
include all campaign activity (contributions, loans,
expenditures, etc.) that occurred over a specified period of
time. Semi-annual reports and preelection reports are two
examples of periodic reports that are required under the PRA.
The second type of report that the PRA requires is an
activity-based report. An activity-based report is triggered
when a candidate or committee has campaign activity that meets
or exceeds a specific dollar threshold. Late contribution
reports and late independent expenditure reports are examples
of activity-based reports.
As a general rule, the thresholds for campaign activities that
trigger an activity-based report under the PRA are
significantly higher than the thresholds for campaign
activities that are required to be reported on a periodic
report. For instance, while the PRA generally requires
contributions of $100 or more to be itemized on a periodic
report, activity-based reporting requirements for
contributions received by committees do not kick in for
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contributions of less than $1,000, and for some activity-based
reports, the threshold is much higher.
There are two primary reasons for this distinction in reporting
thresholds. First, the fact that activity-based reports
target higher-dollar transactions acknowledges that there may
be a public interest for requiring higher-dollar activity to
be reported more promptly than lower-dollar activity.
Second, the distinction in thresholds reflects the fact that
activity-based reporting can be more burdensome than periodic
reports. There are a number of reasons why this may be the
case. First, activity-based reports generally must be
prepared in a much shorter period of time than periodic
reports (often within 24 hours of the time the activity
occurs). Second, activity-based reports can be triggered by
activity that is unpredictable to, or otherwise outside the
control of, the candidate or the committee (for instance, if a
person made a contribution to a candidate through his or her
website on Christmas Day, that contribution could trigger an
activity-based reporting requirement even if the candidate did
not know in advance that the person planned to make that
contribution). Finally, activity-based reporting can
significantly increase the volume of reports that are required
to be filed in order to disclose the same amount of activity
(for instance, a committee that received contributions from 50
different donors in a specified time period might be able to
report all of those contributions on a single periodic report,
whereas an activity-based reporting requirement could require
a separate report for each of those contributions, resulting
in the need to file 50 different reports).
This bill marks a significant departure from the current
practice in the PRA by requiring activity-based reports for
contributions of as little as $100. Such a requirement could
impose a significant burden on committees for campaign
activity at a relatively low dollar threshold. Furthermore,
this bill additionally departs from current practice by
establishing activity-based reporting requirements that are
based on the Legislative calendar, rather than based on the
election calendar.
5)Arguments in Support : In support of this bill, the Howard
Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) writes:
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AB 1730 represents a multi-faceted and necessary approach
to deal with a number of transparency concerns facing the
California Legislature. Especially facing a $10 billion
budget deficit, it is imperative that taxpayer dollars be
prudently spent. Staff salaries should not be hidden
within committee budgets but reported separately. HJTA is
also in favor of the 24 hour reporting requirement
provisions in this bill. As legislation moves through the
process, it is imperative that contributions made by
various special interests be exposed for review by voters.
If anything, this bill is too modest. HJTA has long been
in favor of mandatory 24 hour reporting requirements for
all contributions made within existing FPPC limits.
6)Related Legislation : AB 2239 (Norby), which is also being
heard in this committee today, repeals all limits on
contributions to candidates for elective state office, and
requires campaigns to disclose all campaign contributions and
expenditures of $100 or more within 24 hours.
7)Double-Referral : This bill has been double-referred to the
Assembly Rules Committee.
8)Political Reform Act of 1974 : California voters passed an
initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974 that created the FPPC and
codified significant restrictions and prohibitions on
candidates, officeholders, and lobbyists. That initiative is
commonly known as the Political Reform Act (PRA). Amendments
to the PRA by the Legislature must further the purposes of the
proposition and require a two-thirds vote of each house of the
Legislature, or the Legislature may propose amendments to the
proposition that do not further the purposes of the act by a
majority vote, but such amendments must be approved by the
voters to take effect. This bill would only take effect if
approved by the voters.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Common Cause
Fair Political Practices Commission (provisions relating to
"legislative deadline contributions" only)
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Madera County
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North Valley Patriots
2 individuals
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094