With 14 statewide ballot measures on the ballot, Proposition 4 is thankfully simple to understand.<\/p>\n
If approved, Prop. 4 will repeal California\u2019s general ban on public funding of campaigns and allow most cities and the state to establish public-financing programs if they so choose. That ban was enacted by voters as part of Proposition 73 in 1988, which sought to constrain the use of tax dollars in elections.<\/p>\n
As proponents of Prop. 73, including the late Joel Fox, argued at the time in proposing the ban on public funding of campaigns: \u201cKeeping government spending under control is hard enough. Imagine how much harder it will be to keep politicians from spending more tax money on the most important thing in their lives \u2014 getting elected and reelected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such concerns are perhaps the chief reason to leave the ban in place.<\/p>\n
While Prop. 73\u2019s ban applies to the state and general law cities, charter cities\u00a0 \u2014 those operating under their own local constitution, or charter \u2014 are allowed to authorize public financing of campaigns if they choose to. Out of the 126 charter cities in the state, only Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Long Beach have authorized such programs. However, Oakland\u2019s \u201cDemocracy Dollars\u201d program, while officially approved in 2022, has been postponed due to fiscal challenges in the city.<\/p>\n
Proponents of such systems argue that such systems help rebalance the scales in local elections often dominated by special interests with deep pockets. Empirical evidence on the impact of such systems is limited, but some research has found such systems are associated<\/a> with more candidates entering races and spending less time<\/a> on fundraising.<\/p>\n