Political spending proposals were among the most common shareholder proposal topics in 2012, with more than 90 political spending proposals being submitted to S&P 500 companies (only 56 were voted upon). Despite the significant number of such proposals submitted in 2012, political spending proposals did not fare well with shareholders,
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Corporate Political Spending Disclosure
Shareholder Demands for Corporate Political Disclosure
The Conference Board has issued an interesting report on “Corporate Political Spending.” The report addresses an increasingly high-profile issue for politically active public companies: demands from shareholders and interest groups that corporations publicly disclose all of their political and lobbying activities. Much disclosure is already required, of course, by federal,…
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SEC Staff Takes the Position that Political Spending Proposals Are Substantially Identical to Lobbying Proposals
One issue that confronted many public companies this year was how to respond when they received multiple shareholder proposals relating to political contributions and lobbying matters. One approach that some companies have turned to relies on Rule 14a-8(i)(11) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which allows a company to…
Continue Reading SEC Staff Takes the Position that Political Spending Proposals Are Substantially Identical to Lobbying Proposals
SEC Rulemaking on Corporate Political Spending Disclosure
As has been widely reported, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) recently made some rumblings about undertaking a rulemaking requiring corporations to disclose their funding and participation in political activities to shareholders. The move has been heralded by corporate governance reform groups and decried by some from the business sector. …
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