BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 844
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 6, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 844 (Pavley) - As Amended: August 4, 2014
Policy Committee: ElectionsVote:6-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to make
available on the office's website certain information about each
state ballot measure. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the online version of the state ballot pamphlet to
include:
a) For each listed candidate, a means to access
available-only campaign contribution disclosure reports for
the candidate.
b) For each ballot measure, a means to access the following
information, to be consolidated on the SOS's website:
i) A summary of the measure.
ii) The total reported contributions in support of and
in opposition to the measure, calculated and updated as
specified.
iii) The current list of the top 10 contributors
supporting and opposing the measure if compiled by the
Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC).
iv) A list of each committee primarily formed to support
or oppose the measure and a means to access sources of
funding reported for each committee, and for such
committees that raise more than $1 million, a means to
access online information about that committee's top 10
contributors as reported to the FPPC.
SB 844
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2)Requires the ballot pamphlet, for each state measure, to
contain, immediately below the analysis prepared by the
Legislative Analyst, a printed statement referring voters to
the SOS's Internet Web site for a list of committees primarily
formed to support or oppose that measure, and information on
how to access the committee's top 10 contributors.
FISCAL EFFECT
Ongoing General Fund costs of $130,000 to the SOS for one
full-time and one part-time position to regularly compile
reported contributions and top 10 contributors for each ballot
measure, plus one-time GF costs of $50,000 to develop
regulations if required.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, "Surveys conducted by the
Public Policy Institute of California have consistently found
that more than 80 percent of likely voters support requiring
funding disclosure of donations towards ballot initiatives.
According to MapLight, a nonprofit elections research
organization, in order to find out campaign finance
information for Proposition 30 (2012), it took 460 mouse
clicks to compile a complete list of contributors for and
against the ballot initiative.
`"The average voter does not have the time, nor the expertise
to parse through each individual committee to figure out who
the top cumulative contributors are for or against each
proposition. Without easy-to-access and easy-to-use tools
that can identify the top contributors to campaigns for and
against ballot initiatives, voters will have a more difficult
time making an informed decision about state policy?SB 844
would provide voters with the identities of large financial
contributors who pump millions of dollars into campaigns to
pass or defeat state ballot initiatives. This information is
crucial to ensuring that voters make informed decisions at the
ballot box."
2)Recent Legislation . SB 27 (Correa)/Statutes of 2014, among
other things, requires a committee primarily formed to support
or oppose a state ballot measure or state candidate, that
raises $1,000,000 or more for an election, to maintain an
SB 844
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accurate list of the committee's top 10 contributors. This
list is to be disclosed on the FPPC's website and updated, as
specified. SB 27 also requires the FPPC to provide these lists
to the SOS, upon request of the SOS, to be posted on the SOS's
website.
3)Related Legislation . SB 1253 (Steinberg), also on today's
committee agenda, includes provisions similar to those in this
bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081