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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…

Oregon H.B. 4076; Taxpayer-Financed Campaigns – A Failed and Costly Policy
February 8, 2018   •  By Matt Nese   •  , ,

On behalf of the Institute for Free Speech (the “Institute”), I respectfully submit the following comments concerning myriad policy issues with House Bill 4076, ...

D.C. Taxpayers Would Have a “Greater Voice” if They Could Choose Whether to Contribute to Local Politicians
January 10, 2018   •  By Alex Cordell   •  ,

On Tuesday, the D.C. City Council voted unanimously in favor of a tax-financing program for city campaigns. Dubbed the “Fair Elections Act of 2018,” ...

D.C.’s Fair Elections Act would give more power to the powerful
December 30, 2017   •  By David Keating   •  ,

The D.C. public trough is about to have another mouth to feed: politicians. The so-called Fair Elections Act of 2017, a measure that would ...

Checking in on Seattle’s “Democracy Vouchers” Experiment
November 9, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  ,

This week featured the first general election in which Seattle residents and candidates were able to use the city’s new taxpayer-financing system for political ...

The Connection between Tax Financing of Political Campaigns and Free Speech
October 31, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  ,

Taxpayer-financing of political campaigns is an increasingly salient issue at the state and local level. Advocates of greater campaign finance regulation argue such policies ...

‘Democracy vouchers’ are a sham
October 19, 2017   •  By Alex Cordell   •  ,

In August, the city of Seattle put its ” one-of-a-kind,” “democracy voucher” program to the test. It flunked. Just weeks after the poor first ...

Reduction in Political Speech Under Connecticut’s Tax-Financing Program is Nothing to Cheer
October 13, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  ,

Connecticut legislators recently hit a bump in the road in their effort to defund a state program that provides taxpayer funding to political campaigns. ...

Brookings Institution Panel Says Democracy is in Crisis without (More) Regulation of Political Speech
September 28, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  , , , ,

On Wednesday, the Brookings Institution hosted an event entitled “Democracy at risk: Solving critical problems threatening U.S. elections.” It was billed as a discussion ...

Fraud or No Fraud, Tax-Financing is Harmful to the Campaign Process
September 7, 2017   •  By Alex Baiocco   •  ,

Investigations into candidates allegedly defrauding taxpayers by gaming taxpayer-funded campaign programs are currently underway in both Seattle and Albuquerque. In both investigations, the accused ...

Are Tax-Financed Campaigns Worth the Price?
August 11, 2017   •  By Joe Albanese   •  ,

A recently published study examines taxpayer-financed campaign systems in different locales; specifically, programs that provide matching public funds to municipal candidates in New York ...

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