New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, has withdrawn shareholder resolutions from seven companies after they agreed to disclose political spending, Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller and sole trustee of the $242.3 billion pension fund, announced Wednesday.
The resolutions, which would have been offered for a vote at the companies' annual meetings, were withdrawn between mid-March and early May, according to information provided by the pension fund to Pensions & Investments. "In today's political climate, corporations that engage in political spending risk damaging their reputations," Mr. DiNapoli said in a news release.
"Shareholders need transparency to be able to assess whether corporate political donations align with shareholders' interests, he said. "It is imperative that companies, at a bare minimum, proactively disclose all corporate funds spent on political causes."
The companies are Match Group, Penn Entertainment, Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery, Zillow Group, Zoom Video Communications and the Travelers Companies.
For all except Travelers, the companies agreed to make public all monetary and non-monetary contributions and expenditures to campaigns for or against candidates, or to influence public opinion on an election or referendum, the news release said.
Travelers agreed to publicize the information about trade associations and social welfare organizations to which Travelers pays dues of $25,000 or more as well as the lobbying payments associated with those contributions, the news release said.
