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Tax-Financed Campaigns: A Speech-Chilling, Costly, and Failed Policy
January 1, 2018  •  By IFS Staff  •    •  

Tax-financed campaigns are government-operated programs that seek to replace or supplement private, voluntary campaign contributions with government grants of taxpayer dollars to candidates who meet certain requirements. These programs, often tagged with euphemistic names such as “democracy dollars” or “clean elections,” take many forms. Some provide tax dollars to candidates based on the donations they’ve received while other programs provide…

H.R. 1 Would Undo Watergate-Era Protections Against Government Interference in Election Campaigns
February 13, 2019   •  By David Keating   •  , ,

This portion of the bill will further enhance the role of the federal government in election campaigns. Tax-financing will increase the risk that partisan ...

Testimony of Bradley A. Smith Before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee on H.R. 1
February 6, 2019   •  By Brad Smith   •  , , , , , , ,

Despite proponents’ insistence that H.R. 1 is “For the People,” the bill is anything but. More appropriately labeled the “For the Politicians Act,” H.R. ...

H.R. 1’s Tax-Financing Program Creates New Incentives for Corruption
February 5, 2019   •  By David Keating   •  ,

Any system which promises large sums of taxpayer funding for private individuals can be ripe for abuse. And in H.R. 1’s proposal, if you ...

H.R. 1’s Tax-Financing Program Could Increase Political Polarization
January 17, 2019   •  By David Keating   •  , ,

H.R. 1, also known as the “For the People Act of 2019,” is much better understood as the “For the Politicians Act” due to ...

Evaluating Tax-Financing Programs with Outputs, Not Inputs
January 10, 2019   •  By David Keating   •  ,

Advocates of tax-financed campaign programs frequently claim success in the states and municipalities that implement them. However, these advocates set a very low bar ...

Baltimore has bigger needs than taxpayer money for political campaigns
August 31, 2018   •  By Eric Peterson   •  , ,

At the end of July, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh signed two charter amendments, cementing their appearance on the November ballot. One of these measures ...

Markley and Sampson v. SEEC

 CT SEEC Sampson
June 11, 2018   •  By IFS staff   •  , , ,

Can a candidate for the Connecticut General Assembly send a mailer opposing the policies of the governor? That is the question at the center ...

Americans Support Speech Regulation… If They Are Not Told the Facts Surrounding It
May 18, 2018   •  By Joe Albanese   •  , , ,

Last week, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a news outlet biased in favor of greater political speech regulation, touted recent polling by the ...

Campaign Finance Institute Report on 2016 Election Spending Shows that Money Isn’t Everything
March 20, 2018   •  By Joe Albanese   •  , ,

In politics, it’s easy for narratives to take hold before the facts have a chance to catch up. Political speech issues are no different. ...

Austin should reject free speech pain for politicians’ gain
March 15, 2018   •  By Joe Albanese   •  ,

Americans are more disenchanted with politics than ever before. Yet some think the solution is to give taxpayer dollars to politicians’ campaigns. Unsurprisingly, this ...

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