After a long and heated debate, the City Council created a committee Tuesday to investigate the possibility of publicly financing all Madison city elections.
The proposal, initially submitted by City Council President Austin King and passed by a 12-6 vote, calls for full public financing of city mayoral, aldermanic and judicial races. King's proposal will now be studied for six months by the Blue Ribbon Committee on Clean Elections, which will then make a recommendation to the council.
"I do want to make sure that … whoever succeeds me on the council is representing the interests of that district, the 8th district, rather than the interests of campaign donors," King said at the meeting.
Opponents to the proposal raised several issues with it, such as how taxpayers might react to a raise in taxes in order to finance the elections. Opponents also questioned if the proposal is really necessary to ensure the integrity of Madison elections.
"I'm wondering if, in fact, the citizens of Madison can kick in enough money to provide a level playing field, as you call it," said Ald. Cindy Thomas, District 20, who voted against the proposal. "That requires a fair amount for us to ask our taxpayers to pay for."
As of now, it has not been determined how much a candidate would be allotted for an election run.
However, the issue is something the Blue Ribbon committee will likely study.
Ald. Judy Compton, District 16, also voted against the proposal.
"You're speaking of corruption as if it's a dollar bill — the corruption is in the person's soul," Compton said. "How can we expect taxpayers to pay the ticket for people to be elected, and what's the difference? How is that going to guarantee a clean election?"
If the election system really works, Compton added, all elected officials should already be able to say they have never been bought by special interests.
"I believe that anyone, like I say, who's afraid this is a problem, is a problem," Compton said.
Mike McCabe, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, spoke at Tuesday's meeting in favor of King's proposal. He said he was concerned campaign corruption that exists at the state and federal level might spread to cities, and that this proposal was a proactive step in preventing such corruption.
McCabe cited mayoral races costing six figures and aldermanic races costing five figures as an example of how this corruption affects city government.
"That was unimaginable not too many years ago," McCabe said. "I'm seeing warning signs at the local level that ought to trouble people; that ought to get people's attention, because 15 or 20 years from now you're going to be dealing with a whole different set of much more acute problems if you don't act now."
The Blue Ribbon Committee that will study this proposal is comprised of, among others, representatives from the League of Women Voters and the WDC.
