BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 2221
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 14, 2014

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                   AB 2221 (Campos) - As Amended:  March 28, 2014 

          Policy Committee:                               
          AccountabilityVote:13-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill establishes a seven-member Business Filing  
          Coordinating Council (BFCC) within the Secretary of State's  
          (SOS's) Office. Specifically, this bill:

          1)Directs the BFCC to support, maintain and improve the  
            efficiency of business filings and provide businesses with  
            additional points of contact to express concerns or share  
            ideas about business filings.

          2)Requires the council to issues annual reports about its work  
            to the Governor and the Legislature.

          FISCAL EFFECT  

          Ongoing costs of around $50,000 for the SOS to establish and  
          provide staff support to the council.
          
           COMMENTS  

              1)   Background  . The SOS processes more than 2 million  
               business filings each year.  Processing these documents  
               relies largely on paper files and historically backlogs  
               have occurred. Last March, the SOS reported a business  
               filing processing time of 55 days, whereas other states  
               have processing times of less than a week.  Long waits to  
               file documents could delay businesses from opening, hiring  
               employees, and paying taxes.  In response, the Legislature  
               provided additional funding to the SOS for temporary  
               positions to address the backlog. The filing time is now  
               five days.








                                                                  AB 2221
                                                                  Page  2


            SOS is currently working to automate the business filing  
            system through the California Business Connect Project  
            (Business Connect), scheduled for completion in 2016.  This  
            project will allow businesses to submit business filings, make  
            payments, and request information online.

              2)   Purpose  . This bill establishes the BFCC within SOS, to  
               be composed of one appointee each by the Governor, Senate  
               Committee on Rules, and Speaker of the Assembly as well as  
               the Commissioner of Business Oversight, the Director of  
               Consumer Affairs, the Secretary of State, and the Director  
               of Technology, or their designees.

            The BFCC would be required to review and collect data  
            concerning the needs of businesses required to file documents  
            with the SOS and act as an additional contact for businesses  
            to share concerns or offer innovations to improve the state  
            business climate through streamlined business filings.   
            According to the author, this bill is designed to provide  
            greater scrutiny of SOS' business filing processes.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081