CA campaign finance website won’t be fixed for years

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Sameea Kamal:

When will Cal-Access — the antiquated web portal to track California’s campaign money and lobbying — finally be replaced? 

The short answer: Probably not before December 2026. That’s after the next statewide election, when reporters and the public most need the data. 

Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office is currently evaluating bids and says it expects to have a primary vendor on board by this summer, according to its update Tuesday to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on State Administration. 

An independent assessment commissioned by Weber’s office and the California Department of Technology estimates the project could take 27 months, but the actual timeline depends on the vendor, John Heinlein, assistant project director, told the committee.

Cal-Access is the system where campaign and lobbying disclosures required by state law are uploaded. It’s the main way for the public to keep track of how much campaign money candidates and ballot measure campaigns are raising, and who the donors are, as well as how much lobbyists are spending and who is hiring them. 

But to the frustration of many, the site experiences frequent outages, sometimes for hours at a time. 

Asked whether it tracks outages, the Secretary of State’s office said via email that it has implemented a “stabilization” project and hasn’t seen significant outages this year. 

The replacement project aims to make the system more reliable, user-friendly and allow for better transparency, according to the Secretary of State’s website. 

Weber’s office is seeking an additional $16.8 million in the 2024-25 budget to develop the initial plans and project structure, on top of existing funding of $5.4 million.

The new and improved Cal-Access is already at least three years overdue. The project was initiated in 2016, under then-Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who is now a U.S. senator. After multiple delays, the new system was scheduled to roll out in June 2021, but was paused by Weber due to shortcomings of the replacement system that an independent assessment described as “flawed at the architecture, data structure, middle-tier, and user presentation layers.” Based on that assessment, Weber’s office opted to restart the process.

The state has allocated about $70 million to the project to date, and spent at least $40 million as of September 2022.

Throughout his nearly three-decade rise to political prominence, one part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lore was his fledgling baseball career: How he played for Santa Clara University; how he was scouted by the Texas Rangers; and how an injury ended his baseball dreams, forcing him to rethink his life’s calling and eventually leading him to elected office.

But as CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff explains, the reality behind the governor’s baseball career is a bit more murky.

Alexei spoke to former Santa Clara University baseball coaches and players during the time that Newsom attended, and some said Newsom may have “embellished” his time playing baseball there and pushed back against the impression that he played in official games.

• Kevin Schneider, who pitched for two seasons and now runs a pitching academy in San Francisco: “I worked my ass off. So did everyone else on that team. For him to just go all these years, to say he did something he didn’t that takes not just talent but also dedication and effort and sacrifice, it’s not right.”

Newsom spokespeople say that the governor has never exaggerated his baseball exploits and that it’s not up to him to correct mistaken assumptions. They also say that the precise details aren’t as important as the broader lessons. 

• Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click, in an interview: “He chooses to talk about the emotional side of it, because he thinks that is the place that young people in particular, who are going through struggles, people with dyslexia, can find themselves in his story. That matters way more than, you know, whether he was a rostered player or what his stats were in the fall ball, JV, freshman year, Santa Clara University season.”

For more on Newsom’s college baseball record, read Alexei’s story.

High school students across California are just finding out if they got into the college of their choice. But can they afford to attend?

In our latest explainer, CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn details the various issues that impact the price of college in California, including the lack of affordable housing, food insecurity and the limitations of financial aid for undocumented students.

Figuring out the cost of college wasn’t always this complicated: As part of its higher education “master plan,” California promised students in the 1960s that public universities would be tuition-free. But that changed at the University of California ten years later, in a reproach to campus activism and to save taxpayer money. And when public opinion shifted to view higher education as a consumer good rather than a public right, tuition soared. Over the past roughly 50 years, student fees and tuition have nearly quadrupled at UC and grew six-fold at California State University.

And like other states, California is spending less on higher education per student. About 40 years ago, California funded 80% of UC’s education mission. Last year, it was less than half. State support for Cal State also plummeted, but has rebounded somewhat in recent years.

It’s not all bad though. The state also spends more than $3 billion annually in financial aid programs, and it’s part of the reason why almost 60% of California resident undergraduates at UC and Cal State pay no tuition.

You can also find out in Mikhail’s explainer:

• Are universities making headway to build more affordable housing?
• How many students are saddled with student loan debt and whose loans would be cleared if President Joe Biden’s debt-forgiveness plan were to advance?
• And is going to college worth it?

Have a question about higher ed? Fill out this form (also in Spanish) and it could be answered by the CalMatters’ College Journalism Network.

Federal labor officials are investigating a Los Angeles-area poultry plant for using children to debone raw poultry. And it’s not the first plant facing such allegations. Find out from Alejandra Reyes-Velarde of CalMatters’ California Divide team which plants are under the microscope.