The New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, has reached an agreement with Comcast Corp. in which the media company will disclose political spending made with corporate money, said Nikki Jones, a spokeswoman for Thomas DiNapoli, the New York State comptroller and sole trustee of the $173.2 billion pension fund.
As a result, Mr. DiNapoli has withdrawn a shareholder resolution that would have been presented at the company's annual meeting next month, asking the company to make public its political spending, according to a Tuesday news release from Mr. DiNapoli's office.
As of March 14, the pension fund owned 7,885,555 shares of Comcast valued at $383.7 million, the news release said. Comcast has a market capitalization of $125.78 billion.
“We applaud the company for agreeing to disclose corporate political spending,” Mr. DiNapoli said in the news release. “The fund will continue to engage with companies and shine the light on the use of corporate resources to influence the political process.”
According to the news release, the agreement with Comcast “outlines the company's policy to disclose all money used for electoral political purposes including contributions to political candidates and parties, as well as payments used for political campaigns to trade associations and political action committees.”
"We are pleased to have worked with Comptroller Napoli and The New York State Common Retirement Fund on this disclosure agreement," said Comcast spokesman John Demming in an e-mailed statement. "Our annual report on political contributions will include those from corporate resources and our political action committees, to federal, state, and local candidates, political parties, political committees, other political organizations exempt from federal income tax, as well as the portion of any payments we make to certain trade associations that we know were used for political contributions."