BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 106 (Blakeslee)
          
          Hearing Date: 05/02/2011        Amended: 04/25/2011
          Consultant: Maureen Ortiz       Policy Vote: E & CA: 4-1
          
















































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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY:   SB 106, an urgency measure, requires the state 
          to reimburse counties for the costs of special elections 
          proclaimed by the Governor to fill a vacancy in the office of 
          State Senator, Member of the State Assembly, U. S. Senator, or 
          Member of the U. S. House of Representatives.  The bill will 
          require reimbursement for those elections held between January 
          1, 2009 and April 19, 2011 only.
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          ____
                            Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14     Fund
           
          Election reimbursement            $20,070                  $0    
                          $0            General         
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the 
          Suspense File. 

          There were twenty-one special primary and general elections held 
          to fill Legislative and Congressional vacancies between January 
          1, 2009 and April 19, 2011.  These elections resulted from the 
          resignations of the following members: Mark Ridley-Thomas, Hilda 
          Solis, Curren D. Price, Jr., Ellen Tauscher, Mike Duvall, Paul 
          Krekorian, John Benoit, Abel Maldonado, George Runner and Ted 
          Gaines, as well as the deaths of Senators Dave Cox, and Jenny 
          Oropeza.  Special elections result in an average cost of about 
          $1 million for counties to conduct depending on the size of the 
          county.  Costs are much lower if the vacancy election is 
          consolidated with another election.  Most often these costs are 
          unbudgeted and unanticipated, even necessitating the shifting of 
          funds from other necessary programs to pay for the mandated 
          elections.  Since the imposition of term limits in California 
          implemented by the passage of Proposition 140 in 1990, there 
          have been more than one hundred special elections called by the 
          Governor to fill such vacancies, all of which impose financial 
          hardships on the affected counties.

          First implemented by AB 37 (Johnson), Chapter 39, Statutes of 
          1993, the state has reimbursed counties for the costs of special 
          elections held to fill vacancies in the Senate, Assembly, and 
          Congress from 1993 through 2007.  Since 2008, there have been 








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          numerous, but unsuccessful, legislative attempts to extend this 
          reimbursement provision.

          SB 141 (Price), pending on this committee's Suspense File, will 
          require the state to reimburse counties for the costs of special 
          elections held to fill vacancies beginning January 1, 2012.