Friday, April 11, 2014

No. 40: Failure of the Effort to Repeal Nebraska's Executive Compensation Disclosure Law

In post No. 39 dated April 7, I discussed the effort—led by United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, TX)—to repeal the century-old executive compensation disclosure law in Nebraska. Two days later I learned that Legislative Bill (LB) 799—the bill to repeal the disclosure law—will not be enacted in this session of the legislature. A source at the state capitol said the legislature ran out of the time allotted to LB 799, the legislature is at the end of the session, the bill can no longer get on the agenda, the bill will remain unresolved, and all bills unresolved at the end of the session are killed as one of the final acts of the session.

In No. 39, I said the Nebraska disclosure law grew out of developments in New York a century ago, and reformers at the time thought problems such as nepotism should be solved by full disclosure (often called "sunshine") rather than restrictions on compensation. It now appears the sun will continue shining in Nebraska, at least until the next session of the legislature.

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