Our year-end donations are now approaching $3,000.* We are very grateful for every gift. Please, let’s keep the momentum going. We just haven’t gotten enough to move forward into 2023. We really do need your help now.
*If you’ve made a donation or recurring donation recently, please check that you’ve received a confirmation email. We’ve been made aware that, due to an intermittent conflict with an anti-spam plugin, some donations appear to have gone through that have not. In these cases, donors will not have received a confirmation email. We believe the bug to be resolved now. If you haven’t received a confirmation, please kindly try again or email Cimbria for assistance.
We have a busy year ahead:
- New Mexico and Colorado plan to introduce key public bank legislation.
- Philadelphia continues to pressure the mayor’s office to appoint the board for the approved Public Municipal Financial Authority.
- Planning and viability projects are nearing completion in East Bay, San Francisco, and New Jersey.
- Massachusetts and New York consider reintroducing their public bank bills.
- Public banking groups are gaining real momentum in Oregon, Washington, Texas, Florida, Ohio, and more.
- In the latest development, just a few days ago the Chief Legislative Analyst of Los Angeles delivered her report on developing a Municipal Public Bank for LA. The report was in response to an RFP which recommended a two-phase program costing around $700,000. The next move is approval for the expenditure by the LA City Council, which could take place in the next few months. Let’s hope!
- Support and urgency also continues to build for the National Infrastructure Bank.
Our plans to broadly push the public banking message will help support all these efforts and enable their success stories to add fuel to others.
Imagine if legislators and treasurers in all states understood the good that could come from creating a public bank.
It will take more funding to get our new tools and the message out into the public where people can see them. We have many innovative ideas we’d love to be able to bring to life. Your gift makes this work possible.
We know public banks are a real solution for many current challenges. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation achieved miraculous results during the Great Depression. In less than 10 years, the RFC transformed the country:
- nearly 5,900 schools
- 400 post offices
- 212 dams and canals
- 29,000 units of public housing
- 381,000 miles of power lines
- 325 new firehouses
- nearly 400 airports
- 894 sewage plants
- 78,000 new bridges
- quarter-million miles of road
- 2.3 billion trees planted
- 2,400 plant and tree nurseries established
- 1 billion fish restocked into waterways
- thousands of square miles of soil reclaimed
Imagine the critical needs, including your favorite causes, we could fund with such a publicly-owned institution today.
We are still working toward our goal of doubling the number of donors who have committed to a monthly gift. If you’re already a monthly giver, can you increase the amount? We are deeply grateful for your support.
Photo by Benjamin Cremer.