BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair

                                          SB 334 (DeSaulnier)
          
          Hearing Date: 5/16/2011         Amended: 4/26/2011
          Consultant: Maureen Ortiz       Policy Vote: E&CA 3-2
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          ____
          BILL SUMMARY: SB 334 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         2011-12      2012-13       2013-14     Fund
           
          Ballot costs                                ----unknown, 
          potentially $132 per
                                                                       
          statewide election----                            General   
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          ____

          STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the 
          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.  Therefore, 
          actual costs are unknown and will be dependent on the number of 
          initiatives as well as available ballot space. 

          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 








          SB 334 (DeSaulnier)
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          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 334 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.  

          SB 334 also requries a printed statement to appear in the state 
          ballot pamphlet substantially similar to the following:  "To 
          learn who contributed to committees supporting or opposing each 
          state measure, access the Secretary of State's Internet Web 
          site" (and list the applicable Web site address).

          Also required is a statement that the list reflects only the 
          highest contributors of contributions received before the 110 
          days before Election Day (or a later date in the case of special 
          elections if the Secretary of State determines the 110 day 
          provision is infeasible).  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 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 - nine
          May 2009 - six
          November 2008 - twelve








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          June 2008 - two
          November 2006 - thirteen

          This bill is similar to SB 1202 (DeSaulnier) which was vetoed 
          last year.  In part, the Governor's veto message indicated it 
          would "create confusion for voters and encourage late 
          contributions?.and the measure creates significant cost pressure 
          to print information that is already available on the Secretary 
          of State website?"  This bill is also similar to AB 65 (Gatto) 
          which is currently pending in the Senate Elections and 
          Constitutional Amendments Committee.