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GUEST: Carmen Balber, Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights

The California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act has just qualified for the upcoming 2006 November elections. Proposition 89, as it will be known on the ballot, proposes to set up a public financing system for political campaigns. The initiative is based in part on similar systems currently in place in Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Portland, Oregon and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The initiative hopes to make politicians accountable to voters rather than special interests by limiting contributions and establishing public funding for candidates who agree not to accept private money for their campaigns. Funding would be provided by a 0.2 percent increase in corporate taxes. Penalties such as jail time and removal from office would be established for those who break the law. The initiative has been already been endorsed by the non-partisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

For more information, visit www.cleanmoneyelections.org.