Check the tax box, fund the parties' parties

(CNN) -- When Democrats gather in Denver, Colorado, and Republicans in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, for their political conventions this summer, they'll be taking along with them a big gift from federal taxpayers.

The Federal Elections Commission has announced each convention will receive $17 million in taxpayer funds -- money approved by Congress as part of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

The fund was started back in the 1970s as a way to get influential money out of politics, but critics say it has evolved into another pool of money political parties and candidates can tap into for the ever-increasing costs of national elections.

"You have to wonder what that buys us, " says Sheila Krumholz, who heads the Center for Responsive Politics. "The taxpayers are footing the bill for essentially 4-day-long campaign ads for the parties and their candidates. "

Former Federal Elections Commissioner Scott Thomas says the idea was noble when it was introduced.

"It was to try to insulate the people who end up in the White House from that money fundraising phase, where people who raise the money might be expecting some sort of special consideration down the road," Thomas tells CNN.

Congress' plan was to limit private donations and replace the money with federal funds.

In 1974 Congress approved the "checkoff" system, where individual taxpayers could check a box on their tax form to direct $1 of federal funds to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.

"With the checkoff, the concept is, only if citizens are actually willing to basically earmark at that time a dollar of their taxes to go to this program, will it go there," Thomas says.

But Thomas admits the plan did not eliminate or even reduce private donations to campaigns. And he admits that Congress has not made it clear that in addition to funding presidential campaigns, taxpayers are also funding campaign conventions.

Those taxpayers who check the box approving financing for presidential elections are being "hoodwinked" by Congress, says Steve Ellis with the group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

"Certainly I think most people, when they're checking that box, have no idea that they're paying for party conventions in Denver and St. Paul," Ellis tells CNN.

Ellis also points out that paying the cost of the conventions, now exceeding $100 million each, still relies heavily on soft-money contributions, corporate sponsors and political donations. The taxpayer funds, he says, amount to nothing more than an added gift for the political parties' parties.

"If you look at the conventions, they are still heavily financed by corporate contributions and then also get a big chunk of change from Uncle Sam," he says.

The $34 million handed out to the political conventions this year is the highest amount yet authorized by the Federal Elections Commission.

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