Why companies must be transparent about political spending

If most Americans believed that corporate political spending drowns out the voices of average citizens, you'd think that the three branches of government — designed to serve the public interest — would consider this a systemic crisis that needs immediate amelioration. But despite a 2012 Public Citizen poll finding that 84 percent felt this way, their concerns remain unaddressed.

Several strategies are underway to fix this, but headwinds face them all. The grassroots搬到修改movement, for example, aims to amend the U.S. Constitution to clarify that corporations are not individuals and not entitled to the same rights as individuals. This might take a while because two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of all state legislatures would need to support this amendment. Only five states have passed related resolutions thus far, with three more in progress, while 209 cities have passed such resolutions, with 40 more in the process.

The amendment is a direct response to theCitizens United Supreme Court decision，这使公司与自由言论的个人和等同的政治捐款相同。该裁决还发现了立法分支机构规定的透明度的公共价值。国会介绍了此类立法，包括2010年且2012年的披露法案，但两个分庭的共和党人在抵达时杀死了它，在很大程度上引用了最高法院的自由言语论点。

In the executive branch, the Securities and Exchange Commission appeared prepared to issue a 2014 rule requiring political spending disclosure. Despite nearly 400,000 public comments of support, the SEC seems to be balking. Rumors abound that the government is intimidated by lawsuit threats by business interests claiming that political spending should not be regulated because it has nothing to do with a company's bottom line or share value.

The remaining advocacy strategy isdirect engagement with companies。In 2013, shareholders filed nearly 130 resolutions with corporations requesting disclosure of political spending on campaigns and lobbying groups, such as trade associations. Investor interest in disclosure of all corporate efforts to influence the political landscape grew significantly in 2013 for the fourth consecutive year to 128 proposals, more than double resolutions in 2010, according to the Sustainable Investments Institute. It was the second highest category of resolutions filed in 2013, following the 147 environment and sustainability resolutions filed. Significantly, about a third of all environmental and social proposals filed related to reporting on governance and contributions to lobby groups and political campaigns. While most votes earned only 25 percent approval, there were majority votes at CF Industries (66 percent) and Alliant Techsystems (64 percent), with votes of 40 percent or more at eight other companies, including Marathon Oil, McKesson, Valero Energy and Peabody Energy.

公民民意民意调查发现，77％的美国人支持要求公司公开向群体披露捐款，以影响竞选和监管机构，例如美国商会。去年，在公司年度会议上提交了60个游说透明度提案的结果。18个股东建议中的一半盈利与游说透明度有关的40％以上，而在管理层同意披露这些信息后，撤回了28个提案。

本次问题的核心要素是承认这类贡献的业务风险的重要性，因为我们在目标进入热水时所学到2010年对反对同性婚姻的明尼苏达州普别候选人的政治贡献。有很好的内部业务风险，公司可以控制，如劳动练习，供应链管理和能源使用，但显然许多意外问题都会影响盈利能力和股价，如客户采购模式，地缘政治环境，自然灾害，司法裁决，立法和竞争对手创新。

管理公众感知比科学更艺术。公司每年花费数百万营销顾问和公关公司，以测试产品，服务和广告活动的意见。然而，消费者对公司的看法及其忠诚度可以在揭示疏忽的做法时立即改变，例如劳动惯例差或伪劣环境记录。公众比以往任何时候都更加关注这些问题，并希望他们喜欢和投资负责的公司。在所有成本上赚钱是一种古老，疲惫的业务方式，而公司花费数百万美元对管制行业的政治影响，如果企业以社会和环境负责的方式运作的企业，政府将不需要规定。

谈到政治支出时，公共公民民意调查发现，81％的美国人同意，只有当他们立即透露他们的支出时，公司只能在政治活动中花钱，而80％的公司应该只与现有股东批准一起在政治运动上花钱。显然愿望股东在这种决定中具有一种声音，主要是因为他们想知道理由。近87％也同意，迅速披露政治支出将有助于选民，客户和股东持有公司对政治行为负责。人们希望公司的政治立场与最适合社会的政治立场，而不仅仅是公司的财务自身利益。这些应该是常见的目标，而不是竞争的目标。

The公司政治问责制度has compiled a CPA-Zicklin Index to highlight the leaders and general voluntary progress made towards voluntary disclosure among the largest 200 American companies. Companies such as Baxter, Capital One, Merck, PG&E and UPS disclose all types of political contributions and are generally lauded for their leadership in this arena. Other companies that either won't reveal their policy or are unwilling to disclose contributions include Accenture, Amazon, Apache, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Carnival, Comcast, Costco, Ford, IBM, Morgan Stanley, Praxair, Priceline, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner Cable, Tyco, Walgreens, Walmart, Waste Management and Yahoo.

Dollar bill image by Ricardo Reitmeyer viaShutterstock.。