Blas’ City Charter Games

Mayor de Blasio’s Charter Revision Commission, packed with his donors and fund-raisers, is doing precisely what he told it to: Burnish his progressive resumé to boost his future employment possibilities, rather than focus on the city’s actual needs.

For the November ballot, the commission’s prepping a set of campaign-finance “reforms” designed to “get big money out of politics.” What they actually do is expand the city’s dubious public-financing program to make even more money — taxpayer funds, that is — available to candidates.

The commission wants to lower the maximum allowable contribution to mayoral campaigns to $2,000 from the current $5,100 — while raising the match rate from an already generous 6-to-1 for donations up to $175 to an astonishing 8-to-1 for contributions up to $250.

The “reforms” would nearly double the public match for every qualifying individual contribution from $1,050 to $2,000, and raise the total maximum public payout per election cycle from $8 million to $10.8 million.

Sure, it sounds like small donors are being empowered. But don’t believe for a moment that this does anything to lessen money’s impact on politics.

We’ve always opposed public financing, because the system invites abuse and manipulation. De Blasio proved that last year by filing a “statement of need” for an extra $2.9 million in taxpayer money — for a primary he ended up winning by 60 points.

Nor does anything stop a determined candidate from raking in big bucks outside the city campaign system — through illegal straw donors as well as pet “nonprofits” that claim to be for civic improvements, like the mayor’s now-defunct Campaign for One New York.

Which is why Bill de Blasio, from the moment he took office, has been plagued by pay-to-play scandals involving entirely legal “gifts” from deep-pocketed donors.

All this may help burnish the mayor’s national left-wing credentials. But public financing doesn’t take money out of politics — it just adds taxpayer cash to the pile.