The Arizona agency that provides public financing to candidates for state offices will transfer almost $20 million in surplus funds to the state general fund.
The Citizens Clean Election Committee gave state candidates about $9.3 million for races earlier this year, but was prohibited from providing more money by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The committee had planned to distribute $19.3 million.
Trustees voted last week to add the $10 million it could not spend to the $10 million the committee had already decided to transfer to the state general fund.
Publicly funded candidates can receive additional funds if their privately financed opponents spend more than the state allocated to their opponent, but in June the Supreme Court halted the distribution of approximately $10 million of those funds.
The court said it would consider whether the provision violated the First Amendment right of privately funded candidates.
The clean election committee was established by voters in 1998 to give public funds to candidates in statewide and legislative races if they agreed not to take other contributions. Allocations are distributed to candidates based on the position being sought.
Executive director Todd Lang said the commission has transferred a total of $64.8 million of surplus funds to state coffers since 2002.
The funding is provided by a 10% surcharge on all civil, criminal, and traffic fines in Arizona. State taxpayers can also divert $5 of their income taxes to the elections fund.
