A year-old bill to publicly finance elections could see new life after about two dozen people called on lawmakers to approve a pilot program for Big Island County Council races.

This is the ninth year the grassroots group Voter Owned Hawai'i has tried to get a public financing bill passed. It hopes that limiting the proposal to the nine Hawai'i County Council seats only may help push it through the Legislature this session.

The goal is to allow candidates to accept state money to pay for campaigns instead of accepting donations from special interest groups, a move that some say could make campaigns viable for a greater number of candidates. To qualify, the candidates would have to collect at least 200 signatures and $5 donations from registered voters.

Candidates who can demonstrate that level of support would then be given enough money to run a competitive campaign, bill proponents say.

"It benefits the grassroots organizations. It's the people who go out and mobilize the community," said John Higgins, spokes-man for Voter Owned Hawai'i.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Brian Taniguchi said he plans to schedule a hearing for the bill by mid-March so the bill can be sent back to the House, where it passed unanimously last year.

"The Senate has been open to this stuff in the past, so I don't anticipate any kinds of problems," Taniguchi said. However, he added that he hasn't discussed it with his committee members yet, so he's not sure what kind of discussion it will generate.

Yesterday, members of Voter Owned Hawai'i, the Hawai'i County Council, the Democratic Party of Hawai'i and the League of Women Voters gathered in the Capitol rotunda to express support for the bill.

"We believe public financing is good for the party, good for the public and good for most elected officials," said Bart Dame, co-chairman of the Democratic Party's legislative committee.

"Many elected officials, and certainly most Democratic elected officials, are caught in a no-win trap on this issue. If they vote yes, they are accused of wanting to use public funds for their own purposes. If they oppose public financing, they are accused of benefiting from, and perpetuating, the current pay-to-play system," Dame said.

Partial public financing is now allowed, but Voter Owned Hawai'i said that the rising costs of elections have made the system obsolete. In 2006, only 21 candidates statewide took advantage of public financing and only three of them — all incumbents — won the seats.

"The current public funding system just doesn't give enough money for the candidates to use," Higgins said.

Hawai'i County Councilman Bob Jacobson said it's not possible to run a viable campaign under the partial-financing system, particularly on the Big Island, where districts are so large they span multiple media markets.

"We haven't had any successful uses of the public funding on the Big Island. It is just not enough to do it. I think with the comprehensive public financing, there is an adequate amount," he said.

He thinks it's time to adopt the plan.

"Let's face it," he said. "Corporations, special interests and developers have self-interest in mind when they donate to candidates. These donations are not made to promote public good. They are made to place a candidate in office that will make them the most money or benefit individuals, stockholders and owners."

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.