Ethics Commission report: public financing paid out $8.8 million in 2024; staff flags individual expenditure ceiling for revision

On March 14, 2025, the San Francisco Ethics Commission received a post‑election report on the city—s public financing program showing record public funding and higher-than-ever third‑party spending.

The report, delivered by Audit Manager Eamon Wilson, found that the commission dispersed roughly $8.8 million in public matching funds for the 2024 mayoral and supervisorial elections and that total candidate spending approached $27 million. Wilson said staff will ask the commission to consider possible legislative changes to the individual expenditure ceiling (IEC) formula because it imposes heavy administrative burdens while rarely constraining candidate spending.

Wilson said the program—s reported numbers were pulled from the commission—s disclosure dashboards and candidate filings. "All the data in the report and in this presentation was pulled from the data dashboards that the commission makes available on its website," he said. He told commissioners the 2019 amendments that raised the match ratio to 6:1 and increased contribution caps helped drive a larger share of candidate spending coming from public funds.

Why it matters: public…