Citizens in Charge

Last November we awarded California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the John Lilburne Award for vetoing a series of bills that would have restricted petitioning rights in the state. Included among those bills was AB 436, sponsored by Assemblywoman Saldaña, that would have raised the filing fee for an initiative tenfold from $200 to $2000 over seven years. Unfortunately, the filing fee increase is back, with a slight change meant to satisfy the governor.

AB 1832, which passed the Assembly last week, raises the filing fee to $2000 by 2017. For this version of the fee hike, Saldaña has directed the funds from the fee into the state general fund.  The vetoed AB 436 would have given the proceeds of the fee to the Attorney General’s (AG) office to cover costs of processing an initiative filing. In his veto message last year, the governor indicated that part of his reason to veto was the fact that the fee would go the the AG’s office:

The original fee was established to deter frivolous filings; this bill would fundamentally alter the purpose of the fees to instead be used to pay the administrative costs borne by the AG.  Using the fees to reimburse the AG for actual costs sets a precedent of allowing the fees to increase to the point that it would significantly deter grassroots and volunteer efforts to qualify a measure.  Whether or not the fee should be increased to reflect an amount that would deter frivolous filings today is a separate question than how the fees should be defined and distributed.

Assemblywoman Saldaña is banking on the governor - and members of the state Senate - failing to see that raising the filing fee tenfold, regardless of where the money goes, will certainly deter grassroots and volunteer efforts to exercise initiative rights. They may be paying more attention that she thinks. As the San Jose Mercury News indicates, the bill was pushed through the assembly on party lines “There was no debate on the measure, and no Republicans voted for it.”

After the vote, Assemblyman Van Tran put it perfectly:

“There shouldn’t be any more restrictions or financial impediments to give the citizenry the right to take an initiative directly to the voters of this state”

If you live in California, you can call the capitol switchboard at (916) 322-9900 and be connected to your Senator to tell them what you think.