Do you want $3 of your federal city tax to go to the Presidential Mayoral Election Campaign Fund?

Citizens of Philadelphia, a question:

How would you feel about your hard-earned tax dollars being used to finance the campaigns of candidates for municipal office (Mayor, City Council, etc.)?

Now, how would you feel about removing the influence of big donors from political campaigns in the city so that candidates and elected officials need to depend on broad citizen support to get into and stay in office?

WHYY's Brad Linder reported today about City Council hearings that are investigating the possibility of bringing publicly financed campaigns to Philadelphia.

If this ever becomes a serious issue, you'll be able to tell a lot about a person's position on it by which of the above two questions they ask. So how about it? Should we have publicly financed campaigns in Philadelphia? If so, what rules should candidates have to follow?

As far as I'm concerned, anything that could lead to fewer campaign commercials, leaving more time for those wacky Vonage commercials is a good thing.

Btw, the proprietors of Young Philly Politics had a good debate on this issue a while back. Perhaps it's time to bring it up again.