California Assembly moves to speed business filings

SACRAMENTO -- The state Assembly is expected to vote swiftly Monday to add $2 million to the secretary of state’s budget to speed up the processing of business paperwork.

The office relies on a system of paper and not computerized filings for corporate, partnership and other business records that an entrepreneur must submit before hiring workers, opening doors or selling products.

The $2-million appropriation, which must be approved also by the state Senate, would allow Secretary of State Debra Bowen to increase the pace of her operations for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The goal is get all documents processed within five days of being received in Sacramento.

Assembly Speaker John A. Perez has scheduled an afternoon news conference with leaders of major business associations to hail the passage of the emergency appropriation to cut into an estimated 122,000-document backlog.

News of the backlog was first reported by the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

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