AP17:027
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2017
Contact:
Jesse Melgar or Sam Mahood
(916) 653-6575
Proposed Initiative Enters Circulation
Increases Size of Legislature and Changes Legislative Process. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.
SACRAMENTO – Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the proponent of a new initiative was cleared to begin collecting petition signatures this past Friday, April 28, 2017.
The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:
INCREASES SIZE OF LEGISLATURE AND CHANGES LEGISLATIVE PROCESS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Increases Legislature’s size almost 100-fold by dividing current Assembly and Senate districts into neighborhood districts with each Assemblymember representing about 5,000 persons and each Senator representing about 10,000 persons. Provides for neighborhood district representatives to elect working committees the size of the current Assembly and Senate, 80 Assemblymembers and 40 Senators. Gives working committees legislative power generally, and sole power to amend bills, but requires approval by appropriate vote of the full membership in each house for passage of any non-urgency bill. Reduces legislators’ pay and expenditures. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Decreased state spending on the Legislature of about $100 million annually. Increased county election costs of tens of millions of dollars in election years beginning in 2022. (17-0002.)
The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1798 and the Attorney General’s tracking number is 17-0002.
The proponent of the measure, John Cox, must collect the signatures of 585,407 registered voters (eight percent of the total votes cast for Governor in the November 2014 general election) in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 180 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials no later than October 25, 2017. The proponent can be reached at (847) 274-8814.
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