Senate committee advances bill to list top funders on California ballot labels

The Senate Elections Committee advanced AB 596, an Assembly-authored bill that would require the ballot label for initiatives and referendums to list the top funders who paid to qualify the measure.

Assemblymember Ortega presented the measure, saying, “AB 596 will allow voters to make more informed decisions and understand which entities have paid to put a proposition on the ballot.” The committee heard proponents who said the requirement would cut through large paid campaigns backed by corporate money and help voters identify who is bankrolling measures.

Yvonne Fernandez of the California Federation of Labor testified the measure is “a bill to increase voter awareness and election transparency,” arguing that large corporate spending has overtaken the initiative process and that disclosure on the ballot would help educate voters. Trent Lang, president of the California Clean Money Campaign, told the committee, “AB 596 solves that problem by adding top funders ... to the ballot label so every voter sees who paid to put the measure there.” Support witnesses also included Mitch Steiger of the California Federation of Teachers.

Those testifying in opposition urged caution. Alexis Rodriguez of the California Chamber of Commerce said the measure would require listing “the top 3 contributors of more than $100,000” and argued ballots are printed in advance, so the information could be “outdated” or present “an incomplete or potentially inaccurate snapshot” to voters. Tim Cromartie, representing Secretary of State Shirley Weber, said the office was not in opposition but had concerns about added costs and noted the office had limited time to analyze late amendments: “we have not had sufficient time to begin to analyze it, and we know that we will have costs associated with it.”

Committee discussion touched on practical drafting steps in the bill to shorten contributor names and limit space added to existing ballot labels. Proponents said the bill authorizes the Secretary of State to abbreviate long organization names and to apply rules from the California Disclose Act for calculating reportable contributions so that earmarked donations would be disclosed even if routed through intermediaries.

Formal action: the committee passed a motion that AB 596 be referred to the Committee on Appropriations. The recorded roll indicated a 4-1 vote; Senator Choi was recorded as voting no and Chair Cervantes recorded as voting aye. The bill was transmitted to appropriations for further consideration.