The State House is reflected off the door to Prince George’s County government offices in Annapolis. File photo by Danielle E. Gaines.
Since 2013, every county in Maryland has been permitted to legislate and fund a public financing program that enables candidates to run for executive and council offices on the strength of their ideas and not on the depth of their donors’ pockets, with small contributions from everyday citizens matched with county tax dollars.
The Small Donor model has been legislated in Montgomery (2014), Howard (2017), Prince George’s (2018) and Baltimore (2021) counties and in Baltimore City (2019). It has been used successfully to elect council and executive candidates in Montgomery (2018, 2022) and Howard (2022) counties and Baltimore City (2024).
Legislating the program in Prince George’s was a monumental grassroots effort and occurred in spite of concerted opposition from council leadership including violation of the council’s procedural rules. The bill was introduced as CB-004-2018 by Council Member (now Del.) Mary Lehman with three co-sponsors on Jan. 30, 2018, following a full year of discussions between the sponsor and good-government groups and three public outreach meetings.
It was referred to the Public Safety and Fiscal Management Committee. The bill passed as CB-099-2018 on Oct. 23, the final bill on the final day of that council year, at 1 a.m. by a 5-4 vote; the fifth vote was contingent on moving the start date of the program from 2022 to 2026 to allow more time to fund the program.
After the passage of CB-099 the council adjourned for the 2018 general election in which Angela Alsobrooks replaced Rushern Baker as executive. The three principal opponents of the bill were re-elected to the council for their second term. The executive did not allocate any funds for the program between 2019 and 2022 and the council did not negotiate for funds.
In December 2023, the council passed CB-076-2023 to address a few technical issues in the public financing law and to remove some intentionally punitive clauses. The bill was approved 10-1 and Alsobrooks signed it into law.
Alsobrooks proposed $100,000 for the fund in her fiscal 2024 budget, which was increased to $400,000 in final negotiations with the council leadership, the only allocation in the budget to date.
The Fair Elections Commission, which should have been set up in 2019, was finally set up in 2023 and held its first meeting last October. One of the principal tasks of the commission is to recommend an annual allocation to the county’s budget. Two fiscal analyses by county agencies, in 2018 and 2023, had estimated the budget for the program under various usage scenarios. The commission adopted the smallest figure of $3.65 million for the 2026 election cycle, which would fully fund two candidates for each seat.
With only $400,000 in the fund, they proposed an allocation of $2 million in the fiscal 2025 budget to be followed by a $1.25 million allocation in the fiscal 2026 budget, to reach the full recommended level.
Neither the executive nor the council acknowledged the commission’s recommendation. The executive placed $400,000 in the proposed fiscal 2025 budget, which was removed in its entirety by the council during negotiations with the executive.
In a Sept. 9 letter to the executive, the commission repeated its request and asked for a $2 million supplemental budget allocation in fiscal 2025 to be followed by $1.25 million allocation in fiscal 2026. The commission has pointed out that failing this allocation, the director of finance, who is required to assess the viability of the program in July 2025, would be forced to recommend decreasing the match rate for each publicly financed candidate, thus completely undermining the intent of the program before it even begins.
Over a four-year cycle, the annual cost of the program as a percentage of the county’s operating budget is 0.038 percent; the equivalent of a family with an annual income of $50,000 identifying $18 annually for an item they think would be extremely valuable for their well-being. If not utilized by qualifying candidates, the money remains in the public coffers.
The more the influence of special interests in a county, the more its residents need democracy. Prince George’s County residents require a fully funded Fair Elections program.