News-Record.com

House members are looking at H 120, which would create a pilot program for public financing of city council elections.

Chapel Hill currently has such a pilot and this measure, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Pricey Harrison, would allow cities such as Greensboro to create their own public financing systems.

Two Greensboro residents, Nick Divitci and Eric Eno, came to Raleigh to lobby on the bill's behalf.

Divitci said that the bill would help cure "lopsidedness" in the makeup of City Council.

"The lopsidedness is mostly toward the development interests," Divitci said. He emphasized that Greensboro would not be required to participate if the bill passed. Instead, the city council would have to apply to the State Board of Elections to participate.

The House Election Law and Campaign Finance Committee passed the bill today. (It now goes to Judiciary II before heading to the House floor.)

Here's what Divitci told the committee:

Eno, a Lindley Park resident, said his neighborhood has been involved in fighting a lot of rezoning cases.

"I think there's been a disproportionate influence on the council by developers," he said.

The bill has the support of Common Cause, a good government group that has organized a lobbying effort on behalf of the legislation.

Jessica Hayes, a lobbyist for the N.C. Home Builders Association spoke against the bill during its committee hearing. She said if it passed, her member's participation through their political action committee would be curtailed.

"There is a finite amount of money we can contribute to each candidate," she said.

Dallas Woodhouse, who heads the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group, also spoke against the bill.

"There is only so much the taxpayers can absorb in this state," he said. Cities are already struggling to cope with the sour economy and decreased tax collections.

He added that taxpayers, he said, should not be forced to fund the campaigns of those with whom they disagreed.