Chapel Hill likes to think of itself as more progressive than the rest of the state. So it makes sense that the locale chosen to test out public financing of campaigns is our own little burg.
The Chapel Hill Town Council heard a draft plan Monday for the implementation of public financing for the 2009 municipal election.
We appreciate the effort; public financing is beneficial to opening the field to candidates who don't have the financial means to be competitive against big spenders. And most of Chapel Hill's plan does a good job of upholding that goal.
Unfortunately, there is a sticking point that we have some reservations about.
The plan asks candidates to raise money in order to opt in to the program. This means that in order to get public money, you have to ask the public to donate to your campaign.
The fallacy of this provision is that it asks tax-paying voters to donate money to people who are then going to get more taxpayer money - $750 from at least 75 people for town council and $1,500 from at least 150 people for mayor.
The qualifying contributions mandate is a provision that is traditionally part of voter-owned elections, another name for publicly financed elections. But, like our mothers told us, just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean it is a great idea.
We understand the need to make sure that everyone who is given public funds is a serious and legitimate candidate, but there are other ways to do this than to mandate qualifying contributions.
We recommend dropping the donation mandate and just making the candidates get a certain number of people to sign a petition in support of their candidacy. Even beyond public financing, candidates should have to get signatures to be placed on the ballot in the first place.
As it stands right now, candidates only have to file an intent to run with the county board of elections and pay a filing fee.
The good news is that overall, the program is solid. Candidates can get more than enough public money to run a competitive race. There is also a relief fund if opponents not using the program exceed the program spending levels.
The total amount a candidate is eligible for is $8,000 as a town council candidate and $19,000 as a mayoral candidate.
Both of these are within a competitive range of the average amount spent in the 2007 municipal elections. The average town council candidate spent $6,403.42 and Mayor Kevin Foy spent only $2,003.78 getting re-elected.
The plan does have some flaws, but these flaws do not prohibit the plan from being beneficial overall.
We hope that our concerns are taken into account and adjustments are made. If they are, it will strengthen this already strong plan, and with a little luck, the program will be successful in helping to ease the cost of running for office.
