by Thomas Breen The new haven independent
The board that oversees New Haven’s public-financing program has officially submitted a suite of proposed changes that would allow candidates running for city clerk, and not just for mayor, to tap into the clean-money effort — and that would reduce the amount of money that wealthy self-funders can put into their own campaigns and still participate and receive public dollars.
Those are just a few of the changes included in a proposed ordinance amendment that the New Haven Democracy Fund Board recently submitted to the Board of Alders.
If adopted by the full Board of Alders, the ordinance amendment would allow eligible candidates for mayor and for city clerk to participate in the public-financing program. It would lower the maximum individual campaign donation that participating candidates can accept from $445 to $400. And it would reduce the amount that participating candidates can contribute out of their own pockets to their own campaigns from $23,000 to $1,500.
These proposed changes and many more are all part of an ordinance amendment that was included as a communication on the local legislature’s meeting agenda on Jan. 17. The recommended updates now advance to an aldermanic committee for review before returning to the full Board of Alders for a final vote.
The proposed ordinance amendment pertains to the city’s Democracy Fund, a pioneering municipal public-financing program that began in 2007 and that aims to limit the influence of special interests and encourage more candidates to participate in mayoral races. It does that by providing an initial public grant and matching funds to eligible