The lead story in today’s NYTIMES is entitled S.E.C. Gets Plea: Force Companies to Disclose Donations. The article discusses the furious lobbying
that is being done for and against the SEC issuing regulations that would
require publically traded companies to disclose all political donations. The goal of the regulation is to allow
stockholders to know the contributions companies are making to tax-exempt
(501c-4 organizations) and trade associations that during the 2012 elections
spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to influence the outcomes. You can see the entire article at
It has been 40 short years since the lure of secret campaign
funds proved irresistible to powerful people and led to the resignation of a
sitting US President and the criminal prosecution and resignation of a sitting
US Vice President.
The Nonprofit sector should be outraged that the rules and
regulations that govern its operation are being contorted to promote secret
campaign spending that will sully the sector’s public standing and will inevitably
erode the public’s trust. And once the
public trust in the sector is gone, soon after will go the special tax
treatment that is an important financial pillar of the sector.
Just as the most powerful business groups in the country are
lining up to block the SEC’s promulgation of a campaign donation disclosure
rule, nonprofits from every part of the country should be lining up to lobby
for its adoption. Literally, the sector
cannot afford to stand by and let others—for their own private interests--slowly
but surely sully the nonprofit sector’s reputation and debase the public’s
trust in it.
Thoughts?
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