John Repp on the Promise of Public Banking in Seattle

[eridani]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31718-john-repp-on-the-promise-of-public-banking-in-seattle

We think there's a strong case [in favor of a public bank being legal]. A former [Washington] Supreme Court justice agrees with us. (He's in private practice now, so he doesn't want to write a brief to that effect). We think the city or the state should go ahead and establish a public bank. There's going to be a challenge anyway, from the opponents. The private banking system really doesn't want any competition.

So that's where we are. The city council candidates are quite open, and if they don't know much about it, they'll ask, and be willing to learn. We have people in most of the districts who are showing up at the forums, and we have communicated with all of the candidates, and gotten some replies.

Are you doing any outreach to the general public?

At the beginning, we went to a lot of Democratic Party district meetings, and we went to some church meetings. We even went to a Rotary meeting once. At some public events we leaflet and talk to people. It's pretty well-known among the progressive community, but that's a small community, unfortunately.

Other than our website, and leaflets, we don't have a lot of resources. We're not a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), we don't have a lot of [resources]. It's an ad hoc network.

[freeplessinseattle]

1. Bummer Seafirst is gone

I wonder why they closed up, littering this town with BofAs instead.