Democrats in control of the New York state Legislature for the first time in decades have a golden opportunity to strike a blow against Albany’s pay-to-play culture by enacting a system of public campaign financing.

Yet, amazingly, they are in danger of letting this long-sought goal slip away.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo included a plan for small donor public campaign financing in his proposed budget. The Senate’s new Democratic majority is in favor of it. Assembly Democrats passed it before, but suddenly see a threat to automatic incumbency and are raising petty objections.

New York politics is lousy with big money. In the 2018 election, the top 100 donors gave more to candidates than all 137,000 small donors combined, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice. And that doesn’t count millions of dollars in campaign donations by corporations and limited liability companies.

It’s not charity, folks. Big donors give to politicians to influence decisions on tax policy, environmental regulations and real estate development. And it works. As recent federal corruption trials have shown, pay-to-play leads to bad policy and wasteful spending. Ultimately, corruption breaks the public’s trust and leads voters to disengage from the political process.

Small donor public campaign financing seeks to change that dynamic.

Here’s how Cuomo’s version would work: For every dollar in campaign contributions up to $175, the state would kick in $6, turning a $10 donation into $70 and a $175 donation into $1,225. Candidates would have to qualify by raising money from small donors. Candidates who opted in also would have to agree to drastically lower limits on individual campaign donations. Matching funds would not be a bottomless well; they would be capped at different levels for statewide offices.

The Cuomo administration estimates the cost at $100 million to $200 million per election cycle, out of a state budget of $170 billion. For context, the state spends more than twice as much -- $420 million every year -- on film tax credits for movie and TV productions.

Here’s why public campaign financing would be good for democracy: The 6-1 match amplifies the voices of regular voters. It makes it worth a candidate’s time to meet and raise money from average constituents, and thus makes the candidate less reliant on big donations from corporations and developers seeking favors. Public campaign financing also would attract more candidates to run for office; they don’t need to have a personal fortune or deep political connections to wage competitive campaigns.

In New York City, where public campaign financing has been the law since 1988, races are more competitive than ever, fewer candidates are running unopposed, and voter participation is up.

Critics of public campaign financing point out that it won’t take all big money out of campaigns. Independent expenditures on behalf of candidates are protected free speech under the Supreme Court’s 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo. That’s all the more reason to amplify the influence of small donors.

Others think it would cost too much -- as if cronyism is cost-free. The Moreland Commission on Public Corruption pointed out that “the elimination of just one wasteful tax expenditure or one unnecessary spending program could cover the full cost of the program.” Moreland made public campaign financing its No. 1 recommendation to fight corruption.

Some people are just philosophically opposed to using taxpayer money to finance political campaigns. We get that. Albany’s corruption problem is so bad, we think it’s worth trying -- to break the stranglehold of special interests, to make legislators more responsive to their constituents, to raise the quantity and quality of candidates for public office, and to re-engage a cynical public in campaigns and voting.

You can’t change Albany without changing the conditions under which it operates. Public campaign financing offers a place to start.

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