State Banks and Climate Change - Wed. Feb. 8, Noon, Cedar Creek Room at the State House

Please come and show support for the legislation filed by Sen. Anthony Pollina and Rep. Brian Cina to create a Commission for a Vermont State Bank as an important step for the divestment movement statewide. We are hosting a press conference at noon on Wednesday, February 8th in the Cedar Creek Room at the State House. Please join us, and contact your legislators to tell them you support the bills - S. 48 and H. 208.

TD Bank is a major investor in the DAPL and XL pipelines, and this is currently the bank that accepts all of the state's deposits. So your tax dollars are going to support the pipelines as a result of the state's banking practices. Simply taking the money out of TD Bank is not enough - the only other banks that are large enough to accept the $350M average daily balance are other very large banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America - which are also both investors in these projects.

Creating a Vermont State Bank is the answer to the call for divestment. It is also the answer to many of the state's economic challenges. A study commissioned by the Donella Meadows Institute three years ago, with assistance from the Political and Economic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Creating a Vermont State Bank is the answer to the call for divestment. It is also the answer to many of the state's economic challenges. A study commissioned by the Donella Meadows Institute three years ago, with assistance from the Political and Economic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts and the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont showed that the creation of a Vermont State Bank would add over $340M to the state's economy while creating over 2,500 jobs.

Any other legislative action with those impacts would be a no-brainer for legislators to support, but the big banks are opposed to creating a public bank in Vermont, so they have used all sorts of scare tactics and strong arm tactics to convince legislators not to do it. Meanwhile, in North Dakota, where the State Bank of North Dakota has been in operation since 1919, the dividends the bank pays the state's general fund help keep the state operating in the black while other states struggle with serious budget challenges. This will only get worse with the new administration.

Your legislators need to hear from you.
Please come on Wednesday and talk to them in person. If your representatives are on Government Operations in the House or Senate Institutions, it is even more important for you to contact them to let them know you support the bill.