Following is the statement SBAC issued on the judgment announced by the FPPC today for disgorgement of funds:
We have long stated, and, at the conclusion of their investigations, both the FPPC and Attorney General confirmed, that SBAC PAC had done nothing wrong and were not aware of any violations by anyone else. Even so, as a result of an obscure law, the FPPC was required to seek a judgment for disgorgement.
We believe this law is unconstitutional because it impinges on the First Amendment rights of ballot measure committees to raise and spend funds without the fear of having to hand them over to the government in the future. However, challenging the law would put us in the same quandary many small businesses find themselves during litigation: spend an exorbitant amount of money to fight or agree to settle, justified or not. We understood that fighting this lawsuit would incur large attorney fees and could be tied up in court for years. Given that this is an election year with important issues we want to be engaged in, SBAC chose to put this lawsuit behind us, once and for all, and agreed to a settlement.