REMARKS
Council Member Schulman explains proposed changes to campaign finance recalculations
0:01:21
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56 sec
Council Member Lynn C. Schulman explains the rationale behind Intro 111-A, which proposes changing the frequency of recalculating campaign finance contribution and expenditure limits. The bill aims to address an anomaly that occurs every 20 years due to redistricting, ensuring equity in council elections.
- The current law requires recalculation every 4 years based on the Consumer Price Index.
- The bill proposes changing the recalculation frequency to every local general election cycle.
- This change accounts for the rare circumstance when council members serve two 2-year terms instead of one 4-year term due to redistricting.
Lynn C. Schulman
0:01:21
Thank you, chair.
0:01:22
When the city council first passed the Campaign Finance Act, the provision that capped expenditures for council and city wide offices called for the cap to be increased every 4 years based on the Consumer Price Index.
0:01:32
The 4 year figure came from the fact that city wide and council offices have 4 year terms as a general rule.
0:01:38
However, the law did not account for for an anomaly that occurs every 20 years, in which members of the council serve 2 2 year terms because of redistricting of council lines as a result of the US Census.
0:01:50
To rectify to rectify this issue and bring equity to council elections that occur within this rare circumstance, intro 1111 changes the frequency with which the Campaign Finance Board recalculates contribution and expenditure limits to account for changes in the consumer price index from once every 4 years to once every local general election.
0:02:10
I wanna thank speaker Adams and chair Ressler for their support of this bill to bring equity to city council elections.
0:02:16
Thank you.
