Above Photo: By Sarah Brink
Activists as diverse as Black Lives Matter, local tribal members of the Standing Rock Coalition, 350.org, Democratic Socialists, and MLK County Labor council, as well as several experienced bankers, retired government officials and law school professors have coalesced along with Public Banking advocates in Seattle to pressure City Council to move forward on their newly approved $100,000 feasibility study.
For those in the Seattle area, join the Seattle Public Banking Coalition here.
The Seattle Public Banking Coalition is actively connecting these coalition members to communicate to City Council the urgency of moving forward with the feasibility study. They detail the gains the study would deliver including drafting of a mission statement, examining legal issues, and identifying sources of initial capital:
“The feasibility study can look at the mission statements of public banks. The bank must serve the public interest and work for the long-term prosperity and sustainability of our city, our region and all its citizens.
The study must find any legal impediments to a public bank under current interpretations and applications of city and state law, and consider if changing the law(s) or challenging the interpretation(s) is the best strategy going forward. …
The study must look at the many current city financial practices to see how a public bank would change them. …
The study must identify the sources and scale of the initial capital for the bank.