PUTNEY — Up in Montpelier, a firestorm is taking place. One woman, Gwendolyn Hallsmith, is working tirelessly to educate people about, and make happen, a public bank for Vermont. As a result, people involved with big-money interests are looking to have her fired for the civic work she does beyond her day job as Montpelier City Planner.
There is a good deal of misinformation about a Vermont Partnership Public Bank. Our local banks do not see how beneficial it will be for them; they see a public bank as competition, when, in fact, it would protect, support, and enhance their own respective businesses.
A public bank would allow the state to direct new loans that are backed by the value of our tax dollars, which are currently deposited at TD Bank and People's United.
A Vermont Partnership Public Bank would not otherwise compete with commercial banks. It would exist solely for our state financial accounts.
Some will say that the state is too corrupt to handle our tax money. A public bank would be run by Vermont banking personnel with a coordinated board partially appointed by the administration with books that Vermonters can keep an eye on. It will be accountable to the legislature with its loan policy.
We are losing our local banks because the negative elite banking lobby has orchestrated through the federal government legislation that supports the largest (and most criminal) of banking operations - legislation that stresses the smallest banks, which are the good ones.
While the Shumlin administration keeps our money in TD Bank and People's United, those private, non-Vermont shareholder banks leverage our deposits for their own vision.
For instance, TD Bank is, by some accounts, the largest shareholder in the Tar Sands XL Pipeline at 13 million shares. Thus, our Vermont daily average balance of $367 million in that bank is supporting environmentally devastating practices in Canada. Moreover, our money is not working for us.
In short, bad, big banking is the complete reason for our economic woes and income disparity, yet we need money and we need accounting services.
By supporting local banks through our Vermont Partnership Public Bank, we'll have control of our own money supply in Vermont, and we will be able return more money to Vermonters.