PUBLIC INFORMATION — Assemblywoman Alyson Huber (D-El Dorado Hills), has introduced two bills she
says would increase public access to campaign finance and lobbying
records, reports the Stockton Record.
One of the freshman lawmaker's bills,
AB 1274, would require the California secretary of state to do a better
job of linking reported lobbying activities to specific legislation.
Detailed
lobbying information, while already public record, is "not organized in
a way that the average citizen can figure out the information they
really want to know," Huber said.
"If you
want to find out who is spending money to influence a piece of
legislation," she said, "you have to compile it yourself."
Huber's
other bill, AB 1181, would force anyone who files campaign finance
disclosure forms to do so on the Internet. Most do, but some are exempt.
Neither bill would change basic reporting requirements or deadlines.
Under
her proposed lobbying bill, state officials would be required
periodically to publish an online list of lobbyists who fought for or
against the same bills.
