When Cincinnati voters elect a mayor and council this November, they will also have a chance to decide whether tax dollars should be used to help finance city election campaigns.

        Citizens for Fair Elections, a coalition of groups backing campaign finance reform, has gathered more than 11,000 signatures to place a charter amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot that would limit contributions to candidates for mayor and council.

        The most controversial aspect of the proposed charter amendment is likely to be allowing mayoral and council candidates to receive matching tax dollars if they agree to spending limits.

Petitions in hand

Backers of the charter amendment have been working nearly a year to gather signatures of Cincinnati voters.    Hamilton County Board of Elections officials say the group has already filed 6,994 valid signatures — 149 more than needed to make the Nov. 6 ballot.    Under city law, Citizens for Fair Elections officials had to deliver the petitions to the clerk of City Council on Wednesday.    The clerk will send them to the Board of Elections for a formal count.    City Council will have to pass a resolution by Sept. 7 asking the Board of Elections to place the issue on the ballot, but that is considered a formality.

        “This is a way to even the playing field,” said Pete Strauss, a former Democratic councilman, who helped draft the amendment.

        “The idea behind this is to put citizens back in control,” Mr. Strauss said.

        Backers say it is a response to escalating costs of campaigning and the perception that big-money contributors buy candidates.

        Two years ago, a field of 20 council candidates spent a record $2.5 million for nine council seats.

        Republican Phil Heimlich alone spent $504,176.

        The charter amendment would restore contribution limits that council adopted in 1997 and repealed in 1998 — $1,000 from individuals, $2,500 from political action committees and $10,000 from political parties.

        The financing would be modeled after that in presidential campaigns, in which party nominees may receive millions in matching public funds.

        If a mayoral candidate agrees to spend no more than three times the mayor's salary of about $100,000, he or she could receive $2 in public funds for every $1 the candidate raises.

        Council candidates would have to agree to a spending limit of about $150,000 before receiving the public funds.

        Council candidates would have to raise a minimum of $5,000 from at least 150 individuals to qualify for the matching funds.

        Mayoral candidates would have to raise a minimum of $10,000 from 300 individuals to qualify.

        Of Cincinnati's three political parties, only the Charter Committee has endorsed the proposed amendment.

        Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, a Democrat, said he opposes the amendment.

        “This city is facing a multimillion (dollar) deficit and I'm not willing to budget city money for campaign commercials,” he said.

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