City of Philadelphia - File #: 060070

• File #: 060070
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 2/2/2006
• In control: Committee of the Whole
• Title: Authorizing the Council Committee of the Whole to hold hearings regarding campaign finance reform and public financing of municipal elections.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Tasco, Council President Verna, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Miller, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember DiCicco, Councilmember Rizzo, Councilmember Ramos, Councilmember Nutter, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember O'Neill, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Mariano, Councilmember Kelly, Councilmember Krajewski
• Indexes: CAMPAIGN FINANCE

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
6/5/2006	0	Committee of the Whole	HEARING HELD
6/5/2006	0	Committee of the Whole	RECESSED
4/26/2006	0	Committee of the Whole	HEARING NOTICES SENT
4/26/2006	0	Committee of the Whole	HEARING HELD
4/26/2006	0	Committee of the Whole	RECESSED
2/2/2006	0	CITY COUNCIL	READ
2/2/2006	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced	Pass
2/2/2006	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED & REFERRED

Title
Authorizing the Council Committee of the Whole to hold hearings regarding campaign finance reform and public financing of municipal elections.
Body
WHEREAS, Across the country and the Commonwealth, public participation in elections has been declining and has been demonstrated by low voter turnout and, locally, evidence of this trend has occurred in various elections including but not limited to last year's municipal election, where only 14.8% of the City's registered voters chose to participate in the election by voting; and

WHEREAS, A principal reason for the lack of public participation and low voter turnout is an erosion of the public's confidence in the electoral process due to the influence of special interest money in government; and

WHEREAS, In the last mayoral election, candidates spent a total of $27 million and it is predicted that the 2007 mayoral election will greatly exceed this amount; and

WHEREAS, To address this problem, various major cities and jurisdictions have enacted public financing laws and programs including but not limited to New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Suffolk County of the State of New York; and

WHEREAS, Although the State of New York has some of the country's weakest campaign finance laws, New York City has been a model and leader in municipal election reform and adopted public financing of city elections in the wake of the 1986 corruption scandal where the U.S. Attorney tried and convicted a group of city officials that received lucrative benefits in exchange for an exclusive city contract; and

WHEREAS, Due to the public sentiment, former New York Mayor Ed Koch and many Democratic City Council members were anxious to distance themselves from the corruption scandal that had dominated newspaper headlines for two years and saw campaign finance reform and public financing of elections as the most visible means of de...