NYC comptroller seeks disclosure on contributions

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By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top U.S. companies should disclose their political contributions so shareholders can fully evaluate how corporate assets are used, New York City's comptroller, who helps oversee the city's pension funds, said on Tuesday.

Democratic Comptroller William Thompson said he had sent resolutions to 10 companies seeking data on their political contributions. His list included oilfield services company Halliburton Co, broker Charles Schwab Corp and retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The city's pension funds, which hold about $105 billion in assets, own shares in all 10 of the companies being sent the resolutions.

"Shareholders need full and complete disclosure of companies' political expenditures to fully evaluate the political uses of the corporate assets," Thompson said.

The U.S. government has no guidelines governing the disclosure by corporations of political contributions, Edwin Molina, a Thompson spokesman, said.

Candidates, however, must disclose the source of their contributions to the Federal Election Commission, which publishes the information on its Web site: www.fec.gov.

About half of the states bar corporations from donating money to candidates for state offices.