BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 202 (Hancock)
Hearing Date: 5/16/2011 Amended: As Introduced
Consultant: Maureen Ortiz Policy Vote: E&CA 3-2
_________________________________________________________________
____
BILL SUMMARY: SB 202 increases the fee to submit a proposed
ballot initiative or referendum to the Attorney General for
preparation of the circulating title and summary from $200 to
$2,000.
_________________________________________________________________
____
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
Revenue increase ---unknown, potentially $100 annually--
General
_________________________________________________________________
____
STAFF COMMENTS:
Although the increased fee may only generate minor additional
revenue, it will likely reduce the number of frivolous filings
which will result in a substantial reduction in workload to the
Attorney General's (AG) office. If 50 filings are received that
result in an increased fee of $1,800 each, additional revenue be
$90,000 annually.
The existing $200 fee imposed for filing a proposed ballot
initiative with the Attorney General was originally set in 1943
and has never been increased. It is currently inadequate to
cover the administrative costs incurred to prepare the title and
summary. For example, the costs in 2007-08 for the AG's Office
to prepare titles and summaries were $418,459, while only
$22,800 in filing fees was received. If this fee had been
increased annually according to the Consumer Price Index, it
would currently be $2,480.
Over the last ten years, the number of initiative proposals that
were submitted to the Attorney General's Office increased by 60%
over the prior decade, going from 391 measures in the 1990s to
SB 202 (Hancock)
Page 1
647 measures in the most recent ten year period. The AG is
required to develop a title and summary for each initiative,
regardless of whether the initiative qualifies for the ballot.
Existing law requires that prior to the circulation of any
initiative or referendum petition for signatures, the text of
the proposed measure must be submitted to the Attorney General
with a written require that a circulating title and summary of
the chief purpose and points of the proposed measure be
prepared. The proponents are required to submit a $200 fee
along with the proposed measure which is placed in a trust fund
in the Treasurer's office. If the measure consequently
qualifies for the ballot within two years from the date the
summary is furnished to the proponents, the $200 fee is
refunded. If the measure does not qualify within that period of
time, the fee is transferred to the General Fund.
AB 1832 (Saldana) in 2010, and AB 436 (Saldana) in 2009, were
similar to this measure but would have raised the $200 filing
fee incrementally to $2,000 in 2017. Both bills were vetoed by
the Governor who stated in part relating to AB 1832, "While the
argument may be made that the current fee is no longer a
sufficient deterrent (against frivolous filings), I cannot
support increasing the fee ten-fold. While well-funded special
interest groups would have no problem paying the sharply
increased fee, it will make it more difficult for citizen groups
to qualify an initiative."