April 30, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
Political spending is a redirection of dividends away from the shareholders sanctioned by the board of directors. This spending contrary-to-shareholder income deserves substantial visibility and scrutiny such that executives and board members can be held accountable for these shareholder unfriendly expenses.
Like any other investments, there needs to be a return on investment calculation justifying the expense and the expected future rewards to be gained by purchasing political influence.
We, the shareholders need to be able to hold management accountable for the future returns to shareholders income from their purchasing of political influence.
To do otherwise is to redirect my shareholder income for personal use by the executives and board members to support their cronies in attaining political positions. This is in-tolerable behavior.
I am writing to urge the SEC to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much the corporation spends on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC's web site as well as supported by standardized accounting disclosure.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
GEORGE PAQUIN