November 23, 3008
Fosters
CONCORD — A hearing on setting up a quasi-publicly funded campaign financing system for the state was momentarily interrupted Friday when the chairman asked about students standing in the back of the room.
They were there with State Sen. Jackie Cilley, D-Barrington, who said some of her business students at the University of New Hampshire, after exploring the Statehouse, may be candidates one day.
“You won’t have to do what I do and beg for money every few years,” she told them.
That may be true if the Legislature adopts the plan by the New Hampshire Commission on Public Funding of Elections, which has been making changes to a draft report ahead of submitting the proposal to the governor, legislative leaders and the secretary of state on Dec. 1.
At the close of Friday’s hearing, the seven-member body was focused on a less-expensive pilot program covering six Senate districts, to be chosen at random, in case a full-blown program tackling elections for the Senate, Executive Council and governor is deemed too costly.
“We see the merit of public financing and believe it’s compelling. We also recognize the fiscal situation that the state is in and believe the adoption of a system should start. But it may require that it be incremental, which is why we reluctantly proposed a pilot system,” said Manchester attorney Bradford Cook, the commission chairman and a member of the state’s Ballot Law Commission.
Commissioners devised several ways to raise $2.97 million to $5.57 million each year to support a full program, which would offer matching funds to qualifying candidates who decided to opt into the voluntary system. But overall, that amount of money would not be enough considering the commission’s work shows the system costing between $6.4 million to $8.6 million annually, depending on participation rates. That means some state funding likely would be required to support a more complete system.
The law setting up the commission called for not using the state’s general fund, but that’s what the group says is needed for the system to cover the three types of contests. If that can’t happen, the latest draft report says, “the calculations indicate that is not feasible to fund a complete system with the identified sources of funds.”
State Rep. Jim Splaine, D-Portsmouth, who with Cilley and others sponsored the bill behind the commission, said looking to the general fund to “really fund the system” reflects “reality,” even though it will be “terribly difficult to find any money” in the next session.
The state is facing a budget shortfall, and Gov. John Lynch is proposing a quarter-billion dollars in cuts to close it. He presented $60 million worth of cuts Friday, with $75 million more on the way.
The commission thinks a public financing system deserves general fund support because it can foster an accessible democratic environment in which there’s greater participation, candidates are on a level playing field and ideas trump money and special interests. But considering the state’s fiscal woes, the commission said an interim test program should be considered.
“We want to do everything we can to avoid this being dead on arrival” when it hits the Legislature next year, commission member John Rauh of New Castle said.
Martin Honigberg, a Concord attorney who worked in the state’s Justice Department, said it would be best if the pilot lasted three election cycles, or six years, but still can be meaningful if shorter.
Commissioners said the pilot would cost about $765,000, including $40,000 in administrative fees, every two years. They expressed confidence there would be support for the pilot considering they have identified several potential revenue sources.
The sources, with the amount of money expected from each source, where available, include:
– Grants and voluntary contributions
– Offering a check-off option on tax returns to raise $20,000
– Offering a “first-in-the-nation” license plate to raise $250,000
– Conducting an auction of low-number plates to raise $50,000
– Adding 10 percent to criminal and civil fines and to motor vehicle fines to raise $2.3 million
– Increasing lobbying registration fees from $50 to as much as $150 to raise $45,000 to $90,000
– Increasing the car rental tax to raise $750,000 to $2.6 million
There also were other ideas, like reinstating an inheritance tax on estates and a tax on the use of plastic bags, which combined could raise $100 million or more.
The report details how candidates can qualify for public funds and how much money they would get. To qualify, Senate candidates must receive 250 contributions of $5 to $25 while Executive Council hopefuls must gather 500 donations in the same range. Gubernatorial candidates would need 2,500 donations of $5 to $100.
The thresholds are meant to identify “legitimate candidates” and encourage “broader citizen participation in and ‘ownership’ of the electoral process,” the report says. The contributions can only come from New Hampshire residents — not businesses or interest groups — and most must come from the candidate’s district for Executive Council or Senate contests.
The contributions would trigger the release of matching funds for primary races at a four-to-one level for gubernatorial races and two-to-one level for the other two. For gubernatorial candidates, there would be a $1.75 million limit between raised and matching funds, with $70,000 for Executive Council candidates and $35,000 for Senate candidates.
In uncontested primaries, Senate candidates would be capped at $20,000, while the cap for Executive Council candidates would be $40,000, with $750,000 for the governor.
Candidates who get matching funds in the primary will, should they win the contest, get a grant in the general election — $2.25 million for gubernatorial candidates, $100,000 for Executive Council candidates and $50,000 for Senate candidates. In uncontested elections, Senate candidates would be capped at $5,000, while the cap for Executive Council candidates would be $10,000 and $225,000 for the governor.
Independent candidates who qualify to get on the ballot and receive the necessary number of contributions would receive the same level of matching funds and grants.
In exchange for the funds, candidates would be required to participate in public debates and limit use of personal funds — to $1,000 for potential governors and $500 in the other races.
In both the primary and general election, qualifying candidates would be allowed to seek additional individual contributions — within per-donation limits — raising the question whether the system could unravel. Individual contributions would be limited equally over both elections to $200 for the highest office and $50 for the other two.
“It is a problem,” Splaine said, but “if you don’t allow that, you’re really handicapping the candidate.”
Rauh said the funds can’t be too low because candidates won’t buy into the system. And commission member Stewart Comstock-Gay, the director of the Democracy Program at Demos: A Network of Ideas and Action, said the system won’t be compromised because candidates don’t want to spend their time raising money, especially in small amounts. With fundraising pressures diminished, he said, candidates will be thinking: “I need to get elected. I need votes. Maybe I ought to be talking to voters.”
Sam Mekrut, who works with the New Hampshire Coalition for Public Funding of Elections, said the pilot will let the state measure if candidates’ ability to raise money after they received matching funds and a grant was having an unintended consequence.
Mekrut said a critical next step is putting the proposed caps and trigger amounts in front of lawmakers to see if they think they are realistic.
It’s already clear the commission’s plan could give some Senate candidates, should they run again, more money in future general elections than what they spent this year. Cilley, for example, spent less than $50,000. The commission’s amount is much less, however, in several cases.
“We want there to be the potential for enough money for them to run credible campaigns,” said Cook, the chairman. “Nervous candidates will say it’s too little … and some people will look at it and say it’s too much.”
Doris “Granny D” Haddock, a “special consulter to the commission,” spoke at the hearing. She said states considering public finance systems are looking to New Hampshire, and once it’s established here and elsewhere, a “critical mass” will form, ushering in changes federally.