BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 1102 (Padilla) - Contributions and Reporting
Amended: April 21, 2014 Policy Vote: E&CA 4-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: May 12, 2014 Consultant: Maureen Ortiz
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense file.
Bill Summary: SB 1102 makes several changes to the filing of
campaign contribution reports by decreasing the dollar threshold
of contributions that must be reported, and increasing the
frequency of certain reports.
Fiscal Impact:
Annual costs of approximately $130,000 to the Fair
Political Practices Commission (General Fund)
First year costs of $254,000 and annually ongoing costs of
$239,000 to the Secretary of State (General Fund)
The FPPC indicates the need for PY for an Attorney 1 position,
and PY for a Political Reform Consultant position to cover the
increased requests for advice by phone, email, and letters; and
for the revision of campaign forms and manuals.
The SOS indicates the need for 3 PY's for Staff Services Analyst
positions for increasing monitoring due to the substantial
increase in report filings.
Background: Under the PRA, there are two general types of
reporting requirements. The first type of report is referred to
as a periodic report. Periodic reports must be filed according
to a specified time schedule for all similarly-situated
candidates and committees, regardless of the amount of campaign
activity during the period of time covered by the report. These
reports generally include all campaign activity (contributions,
loans, expenditures, etc.) that occurred over a specified period
of time. Semi-annual reports and pre-election reports are two
examples of periodic reports that are required under the PRA.
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The second type of report that the PRA requires is an
activity-based report. An activity-based report is triggered
when a candidate or committee has campaign activity that meets
or exceeds a specific dollar threshold. Election cycle 24-hour
reports for contributions of $1,000 or more and non-election
cycle 10-business day reports of contributions of $5,000 or more
are examples of activity-based reports.
As a general rule, the thresholds for campaign activities that
trigger an activity-based report under the PRA are significantly
higher than the thresholds for campaign activities that are
required to be reported on a periodic report. For instance,
while the PRA generally requires contributions of $100 or more
to be itemized on a periodic report, activity-based reporting
requirements for contributions received by committees do not
kick in for contributions of less than $1,000, and for some
activity-based reports, the threshold is much higher.
Existing law requires candidates for elective state office and
committees primarily formed to support or oppose a state ballot
measure, if the candidate or committee has reportable
contributions or expenditures of $25,000 or more, to file the
following reports online or electronically with the Secretary of
State (SOS):
Disclosing the receipt of a contribution of $1,000 or
more during the last 90 days prior to an election (an
election cycle), within 24 hours of receiving the
contribution.
Disclosing the receipt of a contribution of $5,000 or
more during all times other than during an election cycle
within 10 business days of receipt of the contribution.
Proposed Law: SB 1102 would make the following changes to
these election cycle and non-election cycle reports and
additionally apply them to committees that make expenditures in
support of or in opposition to one or more candidates for
elective state office or state ballot measures (i.e., general
purpose committees or "PACS" and independent expenditure
committees):
Lower the reporting threshold for the 24-hour election
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cycle reports from $1,000 to $100.
Lower the reporting threshold for the non-election cycle
reports from $5,000 to $100.
Reduce the deadline for the non-election cycle reports
from 10 business days of receipt of the contribution to
five business days.
Staff Comments: Staff notes this bill would lower the reporting
threshold for the 24-hour election cycle reports from $1,000 to
$100; lower the reporting threshold for the non-election cycle
reports from $5,000 to $100, and; reduce the deadline for the
non-election cycle reports from 10 business days of receipt of
the contribution to five days. The result would be that
candidates for elective state office and virtually all state
committees will have to report all contributions of $100 or more
within either five days or 24 hours all year round.
Related Legislation: SB 1442 (Lara) which is pending in this
committee, would enact a quarterly, rather than semi-annual,
campaign reporting schedule while maintaining the existing
election cycle and $5,000 non-election cycle activity reports.