Four legislators reported at least $1 million invested in the stock market in 2023, but California’s limited disclosure laws don’t provide a complete picture of each lawmaker’s wealth.
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The four legislators are Sen. Roger Niello, a Republican from Roseville and a prominent car dealer in the Sacramento area; Sen. Bill Dodd, a Democrat from Napa and former water company executive; Democratic Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, a former county elections administrator in Santa Cruz; and Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson from Rocklin, who ran a small consulting business.
It’s likely there are legislators with as much or more wealth, but California disclosure laws only require them to reveal ownership of individual stocks, business holdings and income property. They are not required to report savings accounts, mutual fund investments or other financial instruments.
Even the stock disclosures are blurry since investments are reported in four huge value ranges: between $2,000 and $10,000, up to $100,000, less than $1 million and more than $1 million. Investments worth less than $2,000 don’t have to be reported.
The limited disclosure about wealth was an intentional part of Proposition 9 in 1974, which created the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission and set rules about financial reporting requirements. Bob Stern, a co-author of the proposition, said the disclosure rule was meant to identify possible conflicts where a legislator might benefit financially from a policy decision, not to detail a member’s overall wealth.
“The idea was that public officials, including the legislators, should be disclosing assets that can possibly be affected by their decisions,” said Stern.
Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, put it slightly differently: “We do not want lawmakers voting with their pocketbooks.”
Political reform groups are divided about the adequacy of California’s disclosure laws, but Stern said he now believes it would be better for the public to understand a legislator’s overall wealth even without additional details about specific investments or assets.
“If I were doing it again today, I think I’d be a little bit more cognizant of wealth, and maybe change that to some degree to indicate maybe a bit more specificity. But we didn’t want it,” said Stern.
What changed his mind? …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
