Daley, 040921 NEAGO, AGO 21-005

• Case Date: April 09, 2021
• Court: Nebraska

Frank J. Daley, Jr., Executive Director AGO 21-005 No. 21-005 Nebraska Attorney General Opinion State of Nebraska office of the Attorney General April 9, 2021          SUBJECT: Authority of an Electric Cooperative Corporation to Make Contributions or Expenditures Supporting or Opposing the Nomination or Election of Candidates for Public Office          REQUESTED BY: Frank J. Daley, Jr., Executive Director Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission          WRITTEN BY: Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General Lynn A. Melson, Assistant Attorney General          INTRODUCTION          You have requested our opinion whether an electric cooperative corporation has statutory authority to make political contributions and expenditures as those terms are defined under the Nebraska Political Accountability and Disclosure Act ["NPADA"], an Act administered and enforced by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission ["NADC"].          In your request letter you point out that Neb. Rev. Stat. § 49-1469 (Cum. Supp. 2020) provides that a corporation may make an expenditure or contribution, but you ask whether the corporate powers of an entity organized pursuant to the Electric Cooperative Corporation Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 70-701 to 70-738 (2018, Cum. Supp. 2020), include making a political expenditure or contribution.          RELEVANT STATUTES          Looking first at the NPADA, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 49-1415(1) (Cum. Supp. 2020) defines a "contribution" as:

a payment, gift, subscription, assessment, expenditure, contract, payment for services, dues, advance, forbearance, loan, donation, pledge or promise of money or anything of ascertainable monetary value to a person, made for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of a candidate, or for the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question.

         Section 49-1419 (2010) defines an "expenditure" as:

a payment, donation, loan, pledge, or promise of payment of money or anything of ascertainable monetary value for goods, materials, services, or facilities in assistance of, or in opposition to, the nomination or election of a candidate or the qualification, passage, or defeat of a ballot question.

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 49-1469(1) (Cum. Supp. 2020) then provides that expenditures and contributions may be made by a "corporation, labor organization, industry, trade, or professional association, limited liability company, or limited liability partnership, which is organized under the laws of the State of Nebraska or doing business in this state          Turning to the Electric Cooperative Corporation Act, the term "corporation" means a corporation organized pursuant to...