TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
DATE: June 26, 1997
RE: Electronic Filing/Online Disclosure UpdateHi Folks,
Time for another update on electronic filing/online disclosure.....This message will bring you up to date on the status of SB 49, which is set to next be heard on July 14th. But first, an announcement: for those of you who are in the Sacramento area, I'll be appearing on KOVR TV's "This Week in California" on Sunday, June 29th at 10:00 a.m. on Channel 13. The topic is "digital democracy" and will feature a discussion between the show's host, Jack Kavanagh (author of the "Rough & Tumble" web site at www.rtumble.com) and me. So tune in if you can!
WHERE WE LEFT OFF:
On June 4th, the California State Senate voted 31-7 for SB 49/Karnette, which would mandate electronic filing of, and online access to campaign disclosure and lobbying records for all campaigns and committees involved with state elections. This would include all legislative and statewide candidates, state ballot measure committees, major donors, PACs, slate mailers, and lobbyists. The bill allows for a phase-in of the program, so that by the General Election in 2000, all candidates who raise $50,000 or more would be required to file electronically.
Now that the bill has passed out of the Senate, it must still make it all the way through the Assembly before it reaches Governor Pete Wilson's desk. First comes the policy committee hearing, then the fiscal committee hearing, then the floor vote. If the Assembly makes substantive amendments to SB 49, it must first return to the Senate for concurrence in amendments before being sent to the governor.
SB 49 was recently assigned to the Assembly Elections Committee. Although I was initially informed that the bill was likely to be taken up at the committee's June 30th hearing, it is now instead going to be heard on July 14th. The lead staff on the bill, Larry Sokol, is working on amendments, including adding new language to establish a process for developing a standard filing format.
It appears that some Assembly Republicans, including Jim Cunneen, are still very committed to this issue, and are trying to work out concerns dealing with privacy and software issues. As some of you may recall, Cunneen's AB 63, which got stuck in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, originally contained controversial harassment language to address his caucus' concerns about harassment and potential stalking of donors. Although Cunneen removed that language from AB 63, his amendments also would have allowed for only a donor's state to be available in the Internet records - street address, city and zip would not be included. Cunneen and Karnette have been meeting to see if they can work out these differences, and I'll be sure to let you all know if or how they get resolved.
As SB 49 is currently written, residential street addresses would be omitted from the online records, but a donor's city and state would be available, and I have been informed that Karnette has no plans to amend her bill to omit the city data from the online records, as AB 63 would have done.
Another issue that the Assembly Republican Caucus has expressed concern about is the so-called "software cap" in SB 49, which says that, if the market doesn't produce a software program that costs less than $100, the whole electronic filing system is scrapped. That language initially sought to address concerns that the state would be mandating a certain filing format without providing filers with the tools they needed to comply with the law; the software cap is designed to mitigate that concern, but frankly no one is that fond of the provision; we'll have to wait and see if some other option arises. (FYI, CVF has been exploring the idea of developing shareware or a web-based filing system as a way of getting around the software dilemma that has stalled the development of an electronic filing system in California and elsewhere.)
So, as you can see, there are a lot of details and issues to work out between now and the July 14th hearing. If you have any thoughts or ideas on these issues, please feel free to share them with me and I will pass them along. I am also happy to assist any reporters who are interested in writing about these issues -- the development of this kind of public policy ain't easy, folks, and the news media can certainly play an important role by helping to foster discussion and awareness.
By the way, some of you sharp Capitol observers may have noticed that SB 7/Kopp, which was the other electronic filing bill that stalled, is now moving again. However, the bill no longer deals with electronic filing - it has been radically amended and all the electronic filing language has been removed.
As always, you can find past legislative updates and all the latest electronic filing news at CVF's Digital Sunlight Web site, at http://www.digitalsunlight.org. We have added many recent news articles, and you can find a hyperlinked version of the Digital Sunlight Progress Report there as well.
By the way, CVF is having its first-ever Board and Staff retreat this weekend, in the Santa Cruz mountains. Wish us luck in charting the future course for CVF, and have a great weekend!
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cvf@netcom.com
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