For Immediate Release: September 19, 2023 Media Contact: Name: Tom Garrett Phone: (202) 301-9200 Email:
[email protected] New Report Finds a Growing Number of States Protect Political Speech from Climbing Inflation Washington, DC — Failing to adjust candidate contribution limits for inflation silently chips away at free political speech rights year after year. That’s a critical finding from a new report just released by the Institute for Free Speech—and it’s bad news for voters in numerous states across the country. The Report on Inflation Adjustments to State Contribution Limits is a comprehensive 50-state analysis examining whether states adjust their campaign contribution limits for inflation to protect free speech rights in making candidate contributions. Yet, the new report also highlights good news: a growing number of states protect the value of contribution limits from rising prices. The report finds that 17 states now “sensibly index their contribution limits to inflation.” Three more states (Arizona, Colorado, and Missouri) have adjustment mechanisms, but these mechanisms do not keep pace with inflation. The Missouri adjustments also only apply to statewide candidates, but no legislative races. Twelve states have no limits on contributions, so adjustments are irrelevant. In all, this means that inflation does not erode the value of contribution limits in 29 of the 50 states. And, when New Jersey became the latest state to index its legislative candidate contribution limits to inflation in April 2023, this meant that 20 of the 38 states that place contribution limits on individuals now provided some mechanism in existing law to increase those limits. However, the report also finds that 18 states do not have any adjustment mechanism. A failure to accurately adjust for inflation leads to the real value of contribution limits declining over time. For example, according to the Consumer Price Index tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a $1,000 contribution limit in January 2000 had declined in value by nearly half as of June 2023. “Failure to protect campaign contribution limits from inflation harms free political speech,” explains the report. “Without indexing to inflation each year, the purchasing power of each dollar will be reduced and will therefore erode the value of the contribution limit originally set by legislators.” The new report further notes that a failure to index contribution limits could result in existing limits becoming unconstitutionally low. As the U.S. Supreme Court has said, a “failure to index limits means that limits which are already suspiciously low . . . will almost inevitably become too low over time.” The Institute for Free Speech recommends that states that fail to adjust their contribution limits to inflation should do so. The report suggests that a model law should adjust for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index. Such laws help to protect free speech while preventing erosion of the value of contribution limits set by the legislature. The full report is available here. About the Institute for Free Speech The Institute for Free Speech promotes and defends the political speech rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government guaranteed by the First Amendment. Visit us at www.ifs.org Follow the Institute for Free Speech: The Institute for Free Speech | 1150 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036 Unsubscribe
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