Local governments and municipalities would be able to regulate financing and appropriate public money for local campaigns under a bill currently being debated by the Assembly Committee on Elections and Campaign Finance Reform.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, allows for local municipalities to create election boards that would act as incubators or pilot projects for campaign finance reform, Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, said.

“It’s a great innovative idea,” Hebl added.

Currently, only the state government determines campaign finance rules for state and local offices. The new piece of legislation would authorize municipalities to set limits on fundraising for all local elections. Different cities within the same county would be able to have different financing limits.

The bill would also permit counties, cities, towns or villages to enact rules to appropriate public money to pay for local candidates’ campaign expenses. To receive the funding, candidates may have to agree to limit contributions to their own campaign or their campaign expenses.

The bill’s supporters say this would let candidates focus on the issues instead of raising money.

“The bill allows for local governments to provide campaign finance and allows for the reform of those concerns that we all have about elections being bought rather than decided by the voters,” Hebl said.

According to Beverly Speer, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, cities and villages are currently entitled to “home-rope protections,” meaning they can institute local regulations that might be stricter than general state regulations.

The bill opens up the opportunity for local Wisconsin municipalities to fix what many see as a broken system, Speer added.

Joe Murray, director of political and governmental affairs for the Wisconsin Realtors Association, however, believes the new bill to be unnecessary because most local races across the state of Wisconsin are not the source of big money.

“It is going to create unnecessary confusion in an area where it is already difficult enough to find treasurers [to manage the finances and contributions] without making mistakes,” Murray said.

Not only is the bill unnecessary, it has the potential to be extremely confusing, Murray added.

“For all the talk about trying to get more people involved, you aren’t going to [accomplish this goal] by restricting their actions in campaigns or in any other way,” Murray said.

Murray said he thinks the people who give contributions to local elections are already active members of the campaign, and if they give contributions, you know they vote.

The WRA believes the bill does not involve more people in the campaign process, but instead it uses up taxpayers’ dollars, Murray said.

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said he is in full support of the bill because it makes sense for cities like Madison to have free elections and public finance.

“The bill is necessary because if the city of Madison wanted to enact a new system for public financing like other cities across the nation, the state currently prohibits them from doing this,” Heck said.

It is desirable because the state cannot oversee everything, Heck added.