Campaign budget for the John Sewell Campaign

The following is the budget for the John Sewell Campaign as of October 24, 2006.

1. Office: Rent, utilities, insurance, telephone : $4800.00
2. Web site $ 4300.00
3. Pamphlets and other printing $9240.00
4. Signs $2500.00
5. Buttons $240.00
6. Honorariums $3500.00
7. Miscellaneous $300.00

Total estimate of expenditures controlled by legislation: $24,880.00

Campaign expenditures not limited by legislation:
Fundraising: $300.00
Victory party: $300.00
Auditor: $1300.00

Total campaign cost estimate: $26,780.00

Provincial law states that, with several exceptions, no candidate is permitted to spend more than the total of $5,000 + 70¢ a voter on the municipal election campaign. The City Clerk has stated that the expenditure limitation in Ward 21 is $25,657.70.

The exceptions to the spending limit are fund-raising costs, the expenses of the victory party, and the cost of an auditor. The fundraising costs for the John Sewell Campaign have been modest since all the funds need were raised with letters that were sent out during the summer. We estimate total fund-raising costs to be around $300.00. We estimate the cost of the victory party to be less than $200.00, and it will be held in the campaign headquarters. We estimate the cost of our auditor to be approximately $1,300.

Public accountability around the election budget is critical since the subsidies provided by the city to donors supports a large share of the campaign budget, including both expenses within the campaign limitations and those that outisde those limitations. Thus, strange as it may seem, public subsidies support fundraising costs and victory parties.

We think all candidates should release their campaign budgets as well as their donors since the budget indicates what kind of spending public money is supporting. We are aware some candidates load up the amounts allocated to fund-raising and to the victory party. Since these costs also are partially supported by public subsidy, we believe this inordinate spending could be inappropriate and a poor way to use public funds.

It should be noted how constrained the campaign budget must be given the expenditure limitation. Some expenditures are unavoidable, such as an office, telephones, and pamphlets, so the question is how much to spend on which items. Our campaign decided to go with cardboard rather than plastic signs for environmental reasons, but the cost of the signs - no matter what they are made of - are considerable. A small sign with a stake costs about $3.50; a large sign with stakes costs about $10.00. These expenses can be reduced if one is using signs from a previous election (not something that we can do), but the use of a great number of signs eats up money that isn’t available, given the legislated limits on expenditure, to be spent on other items.

At the end of the campaign we are required by law to have our accounts audited. We expect this to be relatively simple (and inexpensive) given the few items on which expenditures have been made.

The John Sewell Campaign.
October 24, 2006.