ALEXANDRIA, Va. — CCP President David Keating will testify this morning at a hearing of the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Elections seeking “to examine the abuses within New York City’s taxpayer funded political campaign system and the implications for state taxpayers if the system were to be expanded statewide.” CCP’s report “Clean Elections and Scandal: Case Studies from Maine, Arizona, and New York City” has been used by Republican members of the New York State Senate as a reference in countering a proposal by Governor Cuomo and other Democrats in the Legislature to expand New York City’s system of taxpayer funded political campaigns statewide. Keating plans to make the case that any taxpayer financed campaign program modeled after New York City’s program needs to be scrutinized with a focus on the abuse, corruption, and fraud tied to that program. The hearing will be chaired by Senator Thomas F. O’Mara, and will be held at 11 a.m. in Room 124 of the State Capitol Building in Albany, New York.
“While proponents of so-called ‘clean elections’ proposals tout these programs as a panacea for eliminating corruption and ‘fixing government,’ the experience of three states with similar versions of these programs as well as New York City’s own program is very telling,” Keating writes. “Since the inception of taxpayer financing programs, much research has been devoted to assessing whether these schemes truly realize the many claims made by their proponents or result in better government. In short, there is no evidence to support these claims. These programs have failed to live up to their lofty expectations, while wasting precious taxpayer dollars, and forcing citizens to subsidize the candidacies of individuals with which they may disagree on many issues.”
Read the rest of the testimony here. To watch the hearing live, please visit this link. For more information or to interview David, please contact CCP Communications Director Sarah Lee at 770.598.7961.
The Center for Competitive Politics promotes and defends the First Amendment’s protection of the political rights of speech, assembly, and petition. It is the nation’s largest organization dedicated solely to protecting First Amendment political rights.
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