A state Senate bill that would establish a program for publicly funded elections, also known as “clean elections,” will face its final hearing at 2 p.m. today by the House Committee on Finance.
The bill has passed each House and Senate committee hearing so far, receiving only two no votes from Sen. Kurt Fevella and Rep. Elijah Pierick, both Republicans on Oahu.
SB 1543 would fully fund the election campaigns of candidates for all state and county offices, ranging from County Council up to governor and lieutenant governor. To qualify, candidates would need to opt in to the program and agree not to solicit, accept or use any contributions from any sources other than the program’s public funds.
“SB 1543 is an opportunity to lessen the influence of money in politics, give political power to the people, and restore the people’s trust in elections and the legislative process,” said Hawaii County Council member Jenn Kagiwada in public testimony supporting the bill. “A partial public funding pilot system worked very well for Hawaii County Council races in 2010 and 2012, and fully publicly funded elections programs currently work very well statewide in places like Connecticut and Maine.”
The Hawaii County pilot program distributed $363,060 in public funds to 16 candidates in the 2010 and 2012 County Council elections, but has expired.
A 2023 University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization report by Associate Professor Colin Moore looked at the publicly funded election programs in Connecticut and Maine and concluded public financing for campaigns in Hawaii “would likely create more political competition by leveling the playing field and could be supported by a relatively modest appropriation from general funds.”
The Senate initially estimated the program would cost about $30 million, but other estimates by the political organizations Our Hawaii and The Clean Elections Hawaii Coalition put the total closer to $10 million.
The House already has submitted its initial budget without including funding for this bill and left the total appropriation amount blank, with the House Finance Committee expected to estimate the total cost.
“If the program was used generously, it’s maybe a $10 million allocation a year. To put that in perspective, that’s 0.1% of the general budget,” said Our Hawaii co-founder Evan Weber. “It really has the opportunity to change the nature of who is in office, how they got there, and as a result, who they’re accountable to once they’re in office.”
The bill has gone through several changes since it was introduced, including an adjusted start date of 2026 and an amendment raising the total number of contributions a candidate needs to qualify.
Rep. David Tarnas of North Kona and Kohala amended the bill to require all candidates to collect a minimum of 200 donations of at least $5 from residents within their districts.
“We want to make sure that these are all legitimate candidates,” Tarnas said March 17 during a House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs hearing, adding that 200 donations represents 1% of the 20,000 voters that are in each district.
“It will take work for candidates to go out and do that, but I think there’s a lot of public money they would get once they get these qualifying contributions,” he said.
The Senate bill has garnered more than 550 pages of public testimony, mainly in support of the program from community leaders like Judge Daniel Foley from the Hawaii Commission to Improve Standards and Conduct and organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.
“What these programs do is bring in people who have not been able to run before,” said League of Women Voters of Hawaii President Donna Oba. “We still ask the candidates to get a small number of donations to make sure that they are in the race for sure and can attract funding for their campaign, but it is important to realize that these fully funded public campaign finances do bring in a more diverse group of people, and that’s when we see a better representation of the public at large.”
If passed by the Legislature, the measure will go on to the governor’s office for consideration.
Gov. Josh Green signed seven “Good Government” bills last week, all of which were a part of the recommendations of House Speaker Scott Saiki’s Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct created in response to last year’s guilty pleas by former legislators Ty Cullen and Kalani English for federal corruption charges.
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.