Wheeler critizies ‘backroom tactic’ to keep political spending private

Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler said Monday he was among the first voices nationally – and among the most persistent – to ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require a common-sense disclosure on behalf of shareholders: Corporations ought to reveal their spending on political activity.

That idea has sparked an unprecedented number of comment letters, with more than 1 million received by the federal agency.

But this month, the U.S. Congress inserted a surprise poison pill into its omnibus budget bill and blocked the SEC from adopting any rules in the coming year that enhance reporting about the level and recipients of corporate political spending.

“Shareholders are the owners of corporations, and it is common sense to give investors a clear view of how much money is being spent, and toward which goals,” said Wheeler, who is a custodian of state funds and a member of the Oregon Investment Council, which oversees investment policies for the state.

“It is audacious for Congress to subvert transparency with this backroom tactic, and particularly at a time when record amounts are pouring into political campaigns,” he said.

The treasurer thanked members of the Oregon delegation, including Sen. Jeff Merkley, for their efforts to highlight the need for better disclosures on behalf of shareholders, and said he hopes they will keep pressing the issue in Washington.

As a responsible investor on behalf of beneficiaries, the treasurer said he and the Investment Council take a keen interest in decisions in corporate boardrooms that can affect shareholders and long-term profitability.

Investors increasingly are asking companies directly for more information about how much executives are allotting toward political purposes. Many companies have voluntarily done so, but that is not the case across-the-board.

Wheeler first asked the SEC to increase transparency for shareholders in 2011.

In April, he joined with treasurers of five states in a letter to the agency, in which he reiterated his call to improve transparency for shareholders. In it, the treasurers noted that “secret political spending continues to be a top issue in the investment world.”

Oregon is a global investor, and the State Treasury manages a portfolio worth more than $88 billion, much of it invested in shares of public companies. The largest state trust fund is the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, which stood at $69.5 billion as of Nov. 30.