Ineffective and Expensive

Published on June 17, 2008 05:11 PM
by Sean Parnell, Sarah Duzyk

File Under: Taxpayer Financing

We were recently sent the outstanding comments of Assemblyman Jay Webber of New Jersey, addressing the state's proposal to expand their previous failed experiment with taxpayer funded political campaigns:

 Assemblyman Webber's Letter

As Assemblyman Webber succinctly states, "The role of government in our electoral process is to guarantee some level of transparency and honesty, not to pick winners. This bill turns that idea on its head by essentially empowering the government to tell us what we can say, when we can say it, and how much we can say it." 

Assemblyman Webber also notes that the Garden State's taxpayer funded political campaigns scheme would limit contributions from citizens and political speech from candidates, undermine constitutional rights, do nothing to improve voter confidence, and require a blank check from a state that is already drowning in debt. 

CCP President Sean Parnell also recently sent a letter to members of the New Jersey General Assembly Budget Committee, addressing the claims of "reformers" that taxpayers actually save "taxpayer dollars by reducing inappropriate giveaways to campaign contributors,"  under such schemes. Not surprising to those who follow the "reform" debate and actually care about facts as much as wishful thinking, there is no evidence to support the claim. As the letter explains,

"[Arizona's] final general fund budget passed prior to implementation of taxpayer funded political campaigns was $6,279,478,000 (fiscal year 2001). For the most recent fiscal year, 2008, the State of Arizona had a total general fund budget of $10,618,946,400, an increase of nearly 70%.

At the same time, the total tax burden on Arizona residents has increased since implementation of taxpayer funded political campaigns, rising from an average of 10.4% of income in the years 1997 - 2001 to approximately 10.7% since 2002.

This increased spending and tax burden came at a time when its economy grew approximately 31.5% and per-capita output per resident by 9%."

The number are Maine are equally distressing for "reformers," or at least would be if they paid attention to such things. Full text of the letter is available here:

 CCP Letter to New Jersey General Assembly Budget Committee