SACRAMENTO, June 15, 2016— As the California Legislature voted to approve the state’s budget for the next fiscal year, Kathay Feng, Executive Director of California Common Cause, made the following statement:

We applaud the Legislature for including funding to begin modernizing the Secretary of State’s Cal-Access database, which provides public access to information about campaign finance and lobbying.

The current Cal-Access is woefully outdated, prone to crashing, and overdue for an upgrade. The funding included in this budget is an initial investment toward making Cal-Access more reliable and user-friendly.

We are proud to have broad bipartisan support for fixing Cal-Access, which will bring greater transparency and accountability to California politics. We hope that Governor Brown will support this project to provide voters with easy and meaningful access to information about our democracy.

Note to editors: The budget passed today includes $1.8 million for the Cal-Access modernization project. The total estimated costs for the project are around $14 million, with the remainder to be appropriated from the general fund in future budgets.

Additional information about the Cal-Access modernization effort is available at the California Common Cause website.

Common Cause es una organización de base no partidista dedicada a restaurar los valores fundamentales de la democracia estadounidense, reinventar un gobierno abierto, honesto y responsable que trabaje por el interés público y empoderar a la gente común para que haga oír su voz.