A majority of Salt Lake County Council members say they would support - or at least want to consider - publicly funded campaigns for mayor and County Council.
It's a progressive position that could be a first in Utah - if approved.
Six members of the nine-person council, in a letter sent Tuesday to acting Mayor Alan Dayton, said they want publicly funded campaigns to be broached in a package of ethics and campaign reforms now being debated.
As written, the proposal would limit the private money a candidate could spend during his or her convention and primary. And after a major party has chosen its nominee, that person would get a set amount of taxpayer money and could spend no private funds.
Third-party candidates would receive a sliding percentage of what Republican and Democratic nominees would get, depending on how much of the vote in the race the party received in the most recent general election.
The estimated public cost: $750,000 for a general election.
The proposal probably would have to be enforced voluntarily since the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a candidate has a right to spend any amount of money on a race.
Still, the discussion of publicly financing campaigns pleases Common Cause of Utah, a government watchdog that supports such proposals.
"If taxpayers want to own the political process, they have to be willing to support it," said group Chairman Anthony Musci. "If you let only the wealthy support the political process, then special interests are going to own it. That's the way it works in most settings now."
Dayton says he wants to research the issue before attaching his support. But if council members are "willing to discuss it, let's discuss it."
Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch said there are at least four votes for the proposal and maybe two to three more. It would need at least five votes to pass.
"Reform does cost money," Hatch said, "but clean government is always worth it."
Hatch stressed that there would be no tax increase to provide the public campaign funding, but some other county expense may have to be cut.
The idea of publicly funding campaigns could be included in a series of reforms being considered by the County Council, which has taken renewed interest in enhancing ethics rules and improving campaign laws after a string of scandals this year toppled several high-ranking leaders.
"We've done more in the past two months on ethics than has been done in the last eight years," Dayton declared after Tuesday's council meeting.
Members of the GOP-controlled council once derided the idea of filing more campaign finance reports, calling it "onerous." But now, the council is looking to bolster everything, including limiting campaign contributions from individuals to $2,000 and from businesses to $5,000 per election cycle.
Some council members say even that isn't enough.
Republican Councilman David Wilde said publicly funding campaigns could be the solution to special interests buying off government leaders. "Boy, that would get away from anybody [tied] to special interests," he said.
tburr@sltrib.com
Proposed public funding
for county campaigns
l $150,000 for mayoral race
l $40,000 for each countywide council race
l $20,000 for each district council race.
