NCBA CLUSA will continue to host the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s State Cooperative Statute Library on its new website. The library addresses the challenge of inconsistent legal framework for cooperative development in the U.S. Currently, co-op statutes differ greatly from state to state. Nationwide, both incorporation and enabling legislation are needed to create a legal environment conductive to cooperative growth.

NCBA CLUSA has long advocated for a 50-state approach to cooperative law. This growing database, curated by USDA’s Rural Business Cooperative Service, is a critical step forward to identifying core pieces of good co-op law that can be adopted by other states, resulting in clearer and more consistent statutes nationwide.

This growing database… is a critical step forward to identifying core pieces of good co-op law that can be adopted by other states.

This library was created to give cooperative professionals access to comprehensive descriptions of general purpose, worker and agricultural cooperatives in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and tribal law.

The library is a useful reference for individuals who want to quickly access specific provisions in different states’ cooperative laws and also have the ability to compare the provisions with similar provisions in other jurisdictions. Formatted as an Excel spreadsheet, the library provides a provision-by-provision description of state laws, with different spreadsheet pages on subjects such as cooperative purpose, powers, formation, articles of incorporation, bylaws, membership, control, directors, officers, patronage, finance, merger, consolidation and dissolution.

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The library also includes answers to questions on how cooperatives are treated under specific states’ securities, antitrust, escheat and unclaimed property laws. Further, states’ cooperative tax regimes are described, including state law provisions regarding cooperative income tax, franchise taxes, sales taxes, the domestic production credit, and other taxes and exemptions.

The library is designed for cooperative promoters, educators, members, management, directors, accountants, lawyers, policymakers, regulatory entities and scholars.

Download the library here.

Want to be a part of this project? The USDA State Cooperative Statute Library is the work of more than 30 volunteer researchers located across the U.S. and coordinated by Meegan Moriarty, USDA Rural Development Policy Analyst. Email Meegan at Meegan.Moriarty@wdc.usda.gov if you’d like to contribute research.