December 13, 2011
Pursuant to Elections
Code Section 9005, we have reviewed the proposed constitutional
initiative regarding legislative districts (A.G. File No. 11‑0067).
Background
Composition and Funding of
Legislature. The California Legislature has 120 members—
80 in the Assembly and 40 in the Senate. The State Constitution requires
candidates for these offices to be eligible to vote, residents of their
districts for 12 months, and residents of California for three years.
Proposition 140 (1990) established an annual cap on spending in support
of the Legislature (for expenses such as legislator and staff salaries
and other operating costs). This cap increases annually based on growth
in the state's economy and population.
District
Boundaries. Every ten years, the Citizens Redistricting
Commission is responsible for establishing new district boundaries for
the Assembly and the Senate. In 2010‑11, total costs for the Citizens
Redistricting Commission was in the range of several million dollars.
When the commission sets district boundaries, it must meet the
requirements of federal law and other requirements, such as not favoring
or discriminating against political parties, incumbents, or political
candidates. In addition, the commission is required, to the extent
possible, to adopt district boundaries that:
·
Maintain the geographic integrity of any
city, county, neighborhood, and "community of interest" in a single
district. (The commission is responsible for defining "communities of
interest" for its redistricting activities.)
·
Develop geographically compact districts.
·
Place two Assembly districts together
within one Senate district and place ten Senate districts together
within one Board of Equalization district.
County Election Responsibilities.
California counties are responsible for conducting elections,
including: dividing each county into precincts, establishing and
providing places for voting, maintaining voter registration records,
printing ballots and sample ballots, and transmitting election results
to the Secretary of State. Total county costs to administer elections
are estimated to be in the range of $70 million to $90 million for a
statewide election.
Proposal
The measure amends
the Constitution to (1) subdivide each Assembly and Senate district into
a large number of “neighborhood districts" and (2) reduce legislative
spending.
Neighborhood Districts.
The measure directs the Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw
boundary lines to subdivide each Assembly and Senate district into
neighborhood districts with populations of approximately 5,000 and
10,000 persons, respectively. Each neighborhood district would be
represented by an Assembly Member or Senator. (Because California has
approximately 37 million residents, the measure increases the number of
Senators from 40 to 3,700 and increases the number of Assembly Members
from 80 to 7,400.) Beginning in 2014 and by a majority vote the (1)
elected Senators in a Senate district would select one representative to
serve on the Senate Working Committee and (2) elected Assembly Members
in an Assembly district would select one representative to serve on the
Assembly Working Committee. In general, the measure assigns most
responsibilities and powers currently held by the Senate and Assembly to
the new Senate and Assembly Working Committees, except that budget
bills, non-urgency bills, and veto overrides also would require approval
by the full Legislature before they took effect.
Legislative Spending. Beginning in the fiscal year immediately following the measure's
adoption, the measure reduces the constitutional cap on spending by the
Legislature (currently about $250 million annually) to an amount equal
to 25 percent of its prior year's spending. The measure also specifies
that the compensation for each Senator and Assembly member shall be
$1,000 per year and the compensation for each member of the Working
Committees shall be $30,000 per year.
Fiscal Effect
Decreased State Costs.
The changes to the legislative spending limit would reduce state
spending by over $180 million annually. Every ten years, some of these
state savings would be offset by increased costs—probably in the
millions of dollars—by the Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw
boundaries for the new neighborhood districts.
Increased County Costs. Counties would have increased costs to administer the election of over
10,000 new legislative offices, including improving data management
capacities, modifying precinct boundaries, and printing and mailing
sample ballots identifying each voter's neighborhood district. These
increased county costs could be in the range of tens of millions of
dollars for the first election in 2014, but likely would decline for
subsequent elections.
Fiscal Summary. The
measure would have the following fiscal impact:
·
Decreased state spending on the
Legislature of over $180 million annually.
·
Increased county election costs,
potentially in the range of tens of millions of dollars initially and
lower amounts annually thereafter.
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