TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: June 2, 1997
RE: Online DisclosureHi Folks:
ELECTRONIC FILING/ONLINE DISCLOSURE UPDATE State Senate to vote on SB 49/Karnette
Wednesday, June 4th, 10:30 a.m.As previously mentioned, SB 49/Karnette will be taken up by the California Senate for a full floor vote this Wednesday, June 4th. Senator Karnette has requested permission to take her bill up as a "special order" item at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Many people - citizens and journalists alike - are planning to come to the State Capitol in Sacramento to watch the floor debate and vote from the Senate Gallery. It should be a very exciting morning in the Capitol and I hope many people will be joining us in the Senate Gallery!
For those who can't make it to Sacramento on Wednesday, the good news is that the California Channel will be carrying the Senate floor session LIVE on Wednesday, so if your cable station carries Cal Channel you can tune in as well (check their site at www.calchannel.com to find out if Cal Channel is available in your area). At this point, I cannot predict whether SB 49 will make it out of the Senate - the bill has a lot of strong support and Senator Karnette and her staff have been working hard to shape a sound proposal. In addition, SB 49 has received no "no" votes in previous committee hearings -- in Senate Elections the vote was 3-0, and in Senate Appropriations it was 12-0. I will be sure to send out an update to CVF-NEWS as soon as possible on Wednesday letting everyone know how each Senator voted on SB 49.
AB 63/Cunneen held in Assembly Appropriations Committee
The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted last Friday, May 30, to hold AB 63 in committee. This means that the bill is in effect dead for this year. I have been able to obtain very little information about the appropriations committee hearing, other than some casual observances that it was a highly partisan hearing.
So once there were three electronic filing bills, and now there is one, SB 49/Karnette. (The third bill, SB 7/Kopp, was defeated in the Senate Elections Committee).
Recent news stories on electronic filing/online disclosure
Today's San Jose Mercury News (www.merccenter.com) features an electronic filing editorial and some discussion of the amendments to AB 63 that would omit a donor's city from the online records. The May 30 edition of the OC Weekly (in Orange County) features an interview with me which you can access via their web site at www.ocweekly.com. And this week's edition of the San Francisco Bay Guardian will feature a story on electronic filing legislation. Please let me know if you see any other news stories or editorials, so we can collect and feature them in the Digital Sunlight Web site. Please keep in mind that past legislative updates and other electronic filing resources can be accessed at www.digitalsunlight.org.
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
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