BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1442
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1442 (Lara, et al.)
As Amended August 18, 2014
2/3 vote
SENATE VOTE :34-0
ELECTIONS 5-1 APPROPRIATIONS 15-1
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|Ayes:|Fong, Bonta, Hall, Perea, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, |
| |Rodriguez | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| | | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| | | |Gomez, Holden, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, |
| | | |Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Donnelly |Nays:|Donnelly |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the development of a new Internet-based
campaign filing and public display system. Requires state
candidates and campaign committees to file periodic campaign
reports every calendar quarter, instead of semi-annually,
beginning January 1 of the year following the year in which the
new campaign filing and display system becomes operational.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Secretary of State (SOS), in consultation with
the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), to develop a
statewide Internet-based system for the electronic filing and
public display of all records filed with the SOS pursuant to
the Political Reform Act (PRA). Requires the system to
provide search capabilities that are data-driven and
user-friendly for members of the public and all filings in a
raw, machine-readable data format that may be downloaded by
members of the public.
2)Changes campaign filing requirements and deadlines, beginning
January 1 of the year following the year in which the new
campaign filing and display system becomes operational, as
certified by the SOS, in accordance with the following:
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a) Requires elected state officers, candidates for elective
state office, committees that are primarily formed to
support or oppose a candidate for elective state office or
one or more statewide ballot measures, and state general
purpose committees to file quarterly campaign statements,
instead of semi-annual campaign statements.
b) Reduces the number of preelection reports, from two to
one, that are required to be filed by committees that file
quarterly reports under this bill.
c) Eliminates requirements for committees to file certain
special reports, including supplemental preelection
statements, supplemental independent expenditure reports,
and odd-numbered year reports.
d) Requires contributions and independent expenditures of
$1,000 or more that are made on election day to be reported
within 24 hours of the time that the contribution or
expenditure is made. (Current law requires such reporting
for contributions and expenditures made in the 90 days
before election day.)
3)Makes conforming and technical changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Developing a new campaign filing system is preliminarily
estimated to cost in the range of $12 million to $15 million
(General Fund), with ongoing costs of around $1.7 million to
operate and maintain the system.
2)The net increase in filed reports will increase the SOS's
workload for processing these documents, requiring three to
four additional positions at an annual cost of $300,000 to
$400,000.
3)The FPPC will incur General Fund costs of $150,000 for new
regulations, revision to forms and manuals, and increased
requests for advice.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "SB 1442?replaces
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semi-annual reporting statements with quarterly filing reports.
This doubles the amount of disclosure currently provided to the
public. This will streamline and consolidate the current
reporting process without losing transparency...
"Additionally, SB 1442 requires the Secretary of State to
consult with the FPPC to develop an online campaign reporting
system. An online system will improve the ease of reporting,
occurrence of reporting and allow the public to easily access
reports. A user-friendly, online reporting system is an
important component to ensuring that state government is
transparent and accountable to the public."
This bill seeks to eliminate a number of special campaign
reporting requirements in an effort to streamline the campaign
reporting process. Among the reports that would be eliminated
by this bill are supplemental preelection statements, special
odd-numbered year reports, and supplemental independent
expenditure reports. Because this bill requires state
candidates and committees to file quarterly reports, and because
previous legislation has expanded the circumstances under which
24-hour reporting is required for contributions and independent
expenditures, these special activity-based reports largely can
be eliminated without sacrificing disclosure or transparency.
Created in 1999, Cal-Access is a database and filing system the
SOS has used to make much of the lobbying and campaign finance
information available online at no cost to users. In November
2011, the Cal-Access system went down, and the system was
unavailable for most of the month of December. According to the
SOS, "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 SOS also notes that "recovery efforts that [SOS]
staff and contractors pursued?should stabilize Cal-Access and
enable it to continue running, but the system can never be made
stronger 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."
California voters passed an initiative, Proposition 9, in 1974
that created the FPPC and codified significant restrictions and
prohibitions on candidates, officeholders and lobbyists. That
initiative is commonly known as the PRA. Amendments to the PRA
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that are not submitted to the voters, such as those contained in
this bill, must further the purposes of the initiative and
require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature.
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Ethan Jones / E. & R. / (916) 319-2094
FN: 0004799