Capitol Alert

Attention all lobbyists. Loni Hancock wants to take your money.

The Berkeley assemblywoman, and backer of publicly financed campaigns, appears to have found a way to pay for her pilot project: hiking lobbyist fees.

Hancock's AB 583 began in 2007 as a bill to create publicly financed campaigns in legislative and statewide races. But to advance the bill, she has gutted it to only cover campaigns for secretary of state

The bill has reached the Senate Appropriations Committee, where a hearing is scheduled for this morning, though it still does not contain any funding to pay for the experiment.

That's about to change.

Hancock plans to insert an amendment to hike the fees lobbyists pay from $25 every two years to $350 per year. The new $350 fee is also to apply to lobbying firms and lobbyist employers. The new and higher fees would raise millions every election cycle.

But getting such a plan through the Legislature - especially in the era of term limits, when lobbyists outnumber and are often more experienced than the lawmakers they lobby - could prove a challenge.

In fact, lobbyists obtained a draft of the amendments last week - before the revisions were even in print - and are already mobilizing against the bill.

"It does pay to be a lobbyist occasionally," said Jackson Gualco, who is the head of his own lobbying shop and the president of the Institute of Governmental Advocates, an association of lobbyists.

Gualco is leading the effort to scuttle Hancock's amendments, calling the higher fees a "patently absurd" tax that should require a two-thirds vote.

"Everyone loves to pick on lobbyists," Gualco lamented. He predicted a lobbying show of force at today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

"This affects every lobbyist from agriculture through zoology," Gualco said.

The assemblywoman did not return calls for comment on her bill and the amendments.

The California Clean Money Campaign, an outside group in favor of Hancock's bill, is also trying to rally supporters for today's hearing, sending a message to members saying, that "packing the hearing...will be absolutely critical."

The group is offering to pay for the gas of those to drive from afar to the Capitol.

"This is our last chance for a big hearing showing this year, and 15 senators -- over 1/3 of the Senate, will be there," the campaign wrote. "Everybody who comes should have a chance to line up and say they support the bill - and the longer that line, the better our chances."

Public financing, or "clean money" as supporters call it, works by forcing a candidate to meet certain requirements (signatures, incumbency and small donations) that qualify them or public matching funds during a campaign.

If a wealthy candidate dips into their own purse or an outside group spends heavily in a race, the publicly funded candidate would receive matching funds to compete.

The purpose of such a system, Hancock's bill says, is "to reduce the perception of influence of large contributions on the decisions made by state government" as well as "to remove wealth as a major factor affecting whether an individual chooses to become a candidate," among other things.

Supporters' hope is that a successful experiment in the secretary of state's race would allow the system to expand further.

As for the rest of the financing to support Hancock's AB 583, the bill is also expected to be amended to add a voluntarily tax contribution on the state's tax form (similar to existing "opt in" funds like the CA Sea Otter Fund).