New Hampshire's public election funding commission releases final report

Earlier this month, the New Hampshire Public Elections Financing Commission released its final report on the feasibility of public funding for New Hampshire state elections. Board member Stuart Comstock-Gay has written about some of the findings at the Demos Ideas and Action blog

Comstock-Gay writes: "Even in New Hampshire, we could desperately use public financing. The scale may be smaller than in other states, but the challenge is the same. State senate races, which in the 1990s cost in the neighborhood of $10,000, now see $100,000 and more in spending. And that's for a job that pays $100 per year."

New Hampshire is notoriously taxation-averse, so the state would have to find new, non-tax revenues in order to fund state races. One idea, says Comstock-Gay, is a new state license plate design, "we're thinking either Granny D plates, or First-in-the-Nation primary plates." But ultimately, he writes, elections must be supported by a general fund commitment. "The question is whether the legislature will decide to move it."