BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 1001 (Yee) - Lobbyists Fees.
Amended: May 17, 2012 Policy Vote: E&CA 3-2
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 21, 2012 Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1001 increases the filing fee for lobbyists
from the existing fee of up to $25 per year to a fee of $50 per
year, and also requires political committees (recipient
candidate, general purpose, ballot measure committees, etc.)
that receive contributions totaling $1,000 or more in a calendar
year to pay a similar filing fee of $50 per year. Additionally
the bill establishes a late filing penalty for committees equal
to three times the amount of the fee.
SB 1001 provides that the increase in the lobbyist filing fees
and the new committee filing fee will be deposited into the
Political Disclosure, Accountability, Transparency, and Access
Fund which the bill creates. The money will be used for the
maintenance, repair, and improvement of the lobbyists' online
disclosure system at the Secretary of State's Office.
Fiscal Impact: Total costs of approximately $80,000 (Special
Fund) annually and approximately $490,000 in new fee revenue
(Special Fund).
The Secretary of State indicates the need for one
additional PY to administer the new filing fee imposed on
political committees at an estimated cost of $83,138
annually (Special Fund).
Approximately $490,000 in revenue from the increased fees
on lobbyists and the new fee imposed on committees to the
Political Disclosure, Accountability, Transparency, and
Access Fund.
Unknown revenue from late filing penalties collected from
committees that do not meet the filing deadlines, deposited
into the new Special Fund.
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There are approximately 7,800 recipient committees that will be
required to pay a new $50 annual fee to the Secretary of State
which will result in potential new revenue of up to $390,000
each year. Additionally, the bill will result in about $100,000
in revenue from higher filing fees paid by lobbyists every two
years. SB 1001 directs the money to the Political Disclosure,
Accountability, Transparency and Access Fund.
Background: Existing law requires lobbying firms and lobbyist
employers to register with the Secretary of State (SOS) and
authorizes the SOS to charge a fee of up to $25 per year for
each lobbyist listed on its registration statement. Existing
law also provides that any person, candidate or committee that
files a statement of economic interest, campaign statement or
report after the deadline imposed by the PRA will be subject to
a late filing penalty of $10 per day.
The Political Reform Act of 1974 (PRA) requires the Secretary of
State, in consultation with the Fair Political Practices
Commission, to provide online and electronic filing processes
for use by specified political committees, lobbyists, lobbying
firms, and lobbyist employers. Those processes must enable a
user to comply with all relevant disclosure requirements. The
SOS must also make all data filed available on the Internet for
public viewing.
Created in 1999, Cal-Access is the database and filing system
used by the Secretary of State to make much of the lobbying and
campaign finance information available online at no cost to
users. Cal-Access consists of a suite of applications developed
in 13 different programming languages which, until recently, ran
the system on a server cluster and associated components that
are more than 12 years old, using an uncommon version of the
Unix operating system. While the SOS has the funding to
maintain the existing hardware and software, finding parts and
qualified people to do the maintenance on such outdated
equipment has been increasingly difficult.
The Cal-Access system has been riddled with problems recently
when the entire program went down November 30, 2011, was
restored December 7, 2011, went down again on December 9, 2011,
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and was restored again on December 30, 2011. The causes of the
outages were layered and complex and no quick fix was available.
While the recovery efforts pursued in December should stabilize
Cal-Access and enable it to continue running, the system can
never be enhanced or patched with new features. Any attempt to
upgrade or modernize Cal-Access could be as risky,
time-consuming, and expensive as developing and deploying a new
system. Even the December work to restore Internet availability
of Cal-Access is probably a temporary fix. It is highly likely
that Cal-Access will require more robust servers in the next
three to four years simply to continue providing access to the
ever-growing volume of information.
Proposed Law: SB 1001 does the following:
a) Increases the filing fee for lobbyists from the existing
fee of up to $25 per year to a fee of $50 per year;
b) Requires political committees (recipient candidate,
general purpose, ballot measure committees, etc.) that
receive contributions totaling $1,000 or more in a calendar
year to pay a similar fee of $50 per year within 15 days of
filing its statement of organization;
c) Provides that a committee which is created and pays the
initial $50 fee in the final three months of a calendar
year is not subject to the fee the following year;
d) Provides that a committee that existed prior to January
1, 2013 shall pay the $50 fee no later than February 15,
2013, but by January 15 each year thereafter;
e) Subjects a committee that fails to pay its annual
registration fee on time to a penalty equal to three times
the amount of the fee;
f) Requires the FPPC to enforce the fee provisions;
g) Creates The Political Disclosure, Accountability,
Transparency and Access Fund, specifies that the new
filing fee revenue from lobbyists and committees will be
deposited in that fund, and provides that the money will be
used for the maintenance, repair, and improvement of the
online or electronic disclosure program implemented by the
Secretary of State.
SB 1001 requires the Fair Political Practices Commission to
adjust the filing and registration fees on December 1 of each
even-numbered year to reflect any increase in the Consumer Price
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Index, and to round each adjustment to the nearest $5.
Staff Comments: SB 1001 provides that the filing fees and late
filing penalties be deposited in the Political Disclosure,
Accountability, Transparency, and Access Fund to be used to
upgrade and maintain the Secretary of State's Cal-Access
database subject to an appropriation by the Legislature. Any
expenditure of the moneys will also be subject to the project
approval and oversight process established by the California
Technology Agency.