CALPIRG releases 2013 Legislative Scorecard

CALPIRG

Sacramento, CA – Today CALPIRG released our 2013 legislative scorecard, grading legislators for their votes on CALPIRG-supported bills to protect consumers, lower health care costs, foster participation in elections, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and make tax subsidies more transparent and accountable.

 “2013 was particularly noteworthy for new health care consumer protections and a law to make economic development subsidies more transparent and accountable,” said Garo Manjikian, Legislative Advocate for CALPIRG.

Bills that were scored that were signed into law include:  

– SB 639 (Hernandez) which establishes caps for deductibles and total out-of-pocket costs for all health insurance.

– AB 370 (Muratsuchi) which requires an operator of a commercial internet website to disclose whether or not it honors “do not track” requests by consumer.

– AB 93 which makes economic development subsidies much more transparent and targeted and accountable to the public.

“We applaud the legislators who scored 100% on our scorecard. But there is much more work to be done to protect consumers, get money out of politics, and lower healthcare costs.”

Member of the State Senate are scored on up to 19 votes, and members of the Assembly on up to 15 votes. The total number of bills per legislator varies because not every bill received a floor vote. Bills without a floor vote but more than one committee vote were combined, counting the last vote if a member voted on the bill in more than one committee.