A bill to improve the state’s electronic campaign funding and lobbying database has been passed and sent to the governor’s desk.
SB 3, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), will require the Secretary of State’s office to develop a single, statewide electronic filing system to combine all campaign committee statements and reports and all lobbyist employer reports.
The Feasibility Study Report (FSR) for the system would be released by Dec. 31, 2014.
The bill is a continuation of SB 1001 and SB 1002, also authored by Yee, which greater details the requirements of a new system and the expected deadlines.
California currently allows the public access to lists of candidates running for office, what entities have contributed to their campaigns and a list of lobbyists and their employers on the Cal-Access website. However, the site is prone to crashing; notably, Cal-Access crashed in late November 2011 and was unavailable through most of December, according to a Senate analysis on SB 3.
“It is outright embarrassing that that the state where Silicon Valley is leading the world in computer technology cannot maintain its campaign disclosure system up to modern standards," Derek Cressman, regional director for Common Cause, told the Los Angeles Times.
SB 3 is an amendment to the Political Reform Act of 1974, which required campaign finance regulation and reporting of all campaign contributions and expenditures. The bill will increase fines for late campaign statements and reports and increases lobbyist fees.
Several organizations have declared support for the bill, including California Common Cause, League of Women Voters of California, Secretary of State Debra Bowen, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, the California Clean Money Campaign, California Forward Action Fund, California Public Interest Research Campaign, Communications Workers of America AFL-CIO, CLC Local 9003 and the Friends Committee on Legislation of California.
