Given the city's history of progressive campaign finance reform, it is disappointing that the City Council last week raised the limit on individual gifts to mayoral candidates from $7,500 to $10,000. Making it legal for someone to fork $10k over to a candidate for mayor seems to invite high rollers to buy influence at City Hall.

Councilman Dave Buhler, who proposed the change, noted that the limit had not been raised since the original law was adopted in 1998. He said it needed to be updated to account for inflation. At the same time, the contribution limit to council candidates was raised from $1,500 to $2,000.

Buhler is right that everything costs more these days, including political advertising. But it would serve the public interest better if candidates had to raise the extra money from more contributors, rather than allowing them to solicit bigger donations.

In the last campaign, incumbent Rocky Anderson spent $769,000 under the old rules to claim a second term as mayor. Frank Pignanelli, who came in second, spent $385,000. Even at those numbers, a $10,000 contribution is a lot.

Buhler points out that rich donors can circumvent the rules by giving $10,000 themselves, and having their spouse or their company contribute another $10,000. But if that is the case, he has only made the problem worse by increasing the individual limit. Better that they each were only able to contribute $7,500.

Aside from the increase in individual contribution limits, the City's Council's latest tweaking of the law has some good points. Most important, the new law makes it illegal for a candidate to use a campaign war chest for anything other than political purposes. Or as Buhler aptly put it, a candidate can't use funds raised for a political campaign to provide himself a retirement account.

We agree.

The City Council also tightened the requirements on timely campaign finance reports. We like that, too, but the higher limits on individual contributions were a mistake.