A growing number of cities across the US are considering launching city-owned “public banks,” reports Deonna Anderson in Next City. Among these are Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Washington, DC. Nationally, the Public Banking Institute, an advocacy nonprofit, has been supporting these and many other campaigns.
At the state level, Anderson notes that in New Jersey, the governor-elect “expressed interest in establishing a state public bank during his campaign.” Governor-Elect Phil Murphy’s endorsement of the concept of a public bank may be a watershed of sorts. Murphy spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs, so he knows a thing or two about finance.
Actually, Murphy’s rationale for supporting a public bank in New Jersey has a lot to do with what he learned on Wall Street. According to Katherine Landergan of Politico, on the campaign trail, Murphy noted that,
When New Jersey collects taxes or fees, it currently deposits those funds in private banks—spreading the state’s money across American and international institutions. Those banks, in turn, charge fees … and they use the capital from New Jersey’s deposits to provide loans or finance projects.
“They’re not being obligated to come back and do anything in New Jersey, and they don’t.”
NPQ
By STEVE DUBB | January 2, 2018