Heard in the Hall

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments this morning regarding the legality of the city's campaign finance law - almost 18 months since that question was first raised.

These days, with a mayor's race that is not much of a contested election, there has been little brouhaha over the law, which created the first-ever donor limits in Philadelphia elections.

Among other issues is the central matter of whether the city, under the state's election code, has the authority to regulate campaign contributions. State law is silent on the matter, which has left some people (the city itself as well as Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter) arguing that the city is perfectly in its right to do so. Others (former mayoral candidate U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and labor leader John Dougherty) believe the city ordinance is unconstitutional.

This is an oversimplification of things, but one trial court ruled last year that the law was invalid, while another trial court said it wasn't. Then a Commonwealth Court in April declared it legal. Now it's the turn of the state's highest court.

No decision, of course, is immediately expected.

The state’s high court moved quickly this morning to strip away all but one central question over whether the city of Philadelphia has the legal right to cap campaign donations for municipal candidates.

That question is this: Since Pennsylvania’s election law does not explicitly address the matter one way or the other, can Philadelphia do what it likes, or not?

“The call for us is whether non-action is action,” as Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy put it.

Hearing cases today in Philadelphia, in an ornate City Hall courtroom, the seven justices listened to opposing arguments about the answer to that question, and asked several of their own, for about 30 minutes.

What wasn’t discussed is why U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, who lost in the primary race for mayor, is pressing forward with the case. Afterall, Democratic nominee Michael Nutter undoubtedly showed that significant dollars can be raised, even with the campaign-finance caps.

The justices likely to cast votes at the end of the day, although that decision, and the accompanying written opinion, will probably not be made public for several weeks.

With the November general election less than a month away, however the case is settled almost certainly will not affect fundraising for either of the mayoral candidates, among the others running for municipal office.

Commonwealth Court ruled in April that the city has the authority to set its own campaign-finance rules.

The case stems from a suit filed nearly 18 months ago by Nutter.

He subsequently withdrew his complaint. But the case was kept alive because of counterclaims filed by labor leader John. J. Dougherty, who was then considering a run for the office.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court still hasn't decided whether Philadelphia's campaign finance law is valid, so for right now, the law remains intact.

And that means as soon as the new year hits, so do new campaign contribution limits.

A lengthy section of the four-year-old ordinance details how the limits must be adjusted for the 2008 calendar year, and every four years afterward.

Right now the caps limit individual donations to $2,500 a year, and poltiical committees to $10,000. How will that change?

"The Finance Director must calculate the CPI Multiplier by dividing the average consumer price index for Philadelphia during the then-calendar year (2007 for this first calculation) by the average consumer price index for Philadelphia during calender year 2005."

Huh? There's some other nitty-gritty detail in the calculation as well.

To get to the bottom of this and find out what the actual limits will be that will govern the new caps that Mayor-Elect Michael Nutter and others will have to abide by, stay tuned for an answer from the city finance department.

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics, seeing its charge as overseeing the city ordinance, has requested that the new caps be determined, and shared, by the Dec. 15 deadline that is set out in the law.

Get out those checkbooks!

The new campaign finance caps have been announced, and there's room for more - more collecting of campaign dollars, that is.

Instead of being limited to $2,500, individual donors can now give up to $2,600 to city candidates. And businesses and political committees can now give up to $10,600, busting through the $10,000 cap that existed until now.

As required by law, the new caps were adjusted for the new calendar year, taking into account
the consumer price index, and more.

So this is it, this is the way fundraising will work in Philadelphia - now that it's been legalized by the state Supreme Court - until the next time the caps are adjusted.

That will be in 2012.