A Public Bank works for the Public Good.
Public Bank profits feed the local economy rather than feeding off of it.
Dear Friends:
At our Town Hall meeting on June 22nd it was time to start adding the public’s thinking into the discussion of a Public Bank for Santa Fe. It’s our money, after all! Thank you to those who participated by sharing your questions and thoughts.
A warm thanks to Katie Updike (City of Santa Fe’s Public Bank feasibility study consultant) who presented her draft of the Phase I consensus document that was developed through research, meetings with City officials and staff, and many financial and other experts. The consensus document will help establish the economic baseline for things like Santa Feans’ access to credit and how the City’s funds are being managed.
These findings will help guide the direction of the next four phases of the public bank feasibility study which we anticipate may be completed by the end of this year.
We were not surprised to hear that Santa Feans rank near the bottom in access to credit. Banks aren’t lending into our community for a variety of reasons.
Santa Fe’s economy has not recovered from the effects of the 2008 global bank crash. It’s clear that we’ve got to change how we do things if we’re going to improve our economic condition as a community.
Our City no longer earns enough revenue to fund even a bare-bones budget! Recently our City Council reluctantly agreed to lend public funds from one public approved purpose to another so that it could balance the City’s Budget.
Currently 38% of the cost of Santa Fe’s public projects goes to pay interest to OTHER financial institutions.
Think what we could do with that 38% if we had a Public Bank!
We learned that in other states there is an upwelling of economic democracy as people invest back into their community through Peer to Peer investment strategies. The enabling legislation has not yet happened for New Mexico.
SOUND, SMART IDEA for many reasons.
It’s smart to keep our public funds safe from risky global bank investments and instead to put our public funds to work right here in Santa Fe.
It’s smart because our Public Bank can leverage those deposits creating low interest loans to help grow our local economy, or fund local projects and services.
It’s also smart to partner with local financial institutions who do the actual lending thereby increasing the amount of credit that will be available in Santa Fe.
And most importantly, it’s very smart to invest in Santa Fe through our own public bank because, as those investments are paid back with interest, the profits grow the bank’s capacity to invest back into our community (instead of benefiting private investors from some other financial institution).
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GET A BUMPER STICKER AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR PUBLIC BANKING. Send an email to BankingOnNM@gmail.com with your name and mailing address and we’ll send you a Banking On New Mexico “Friends of Public Banking” bumper sticker (removable) to help spread the word.
