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Supervisors Approve A Public Bank For San Francisco

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San Francisco has a $13 billion annual budget, but we don’t actually have that money. Bank of freaking America has that money, which they reinvest in bombs, prisons, fossil fuels, and exploitation of the working class to create endless shareholder profits. Here’s Jackie Fielder to explain how fucked up the current system is.

The movement to start a San Francisco Public Bank, or technically a “non-depository municipal finance corporation,” hit a humongous milestone Tuesday night. The SF Board of Supervisors  unanimously approved the first step to giving San Francisco the nation’s first ever municipally owned bank. 

“Public banks are fundamentally financial institutions that are accountable to people, and not existing for private profit,” the proposal’s sponsor Sup. Dean Preston said at Tuesday’s board meeting. If created, Preston said the bank would “invest in communities of color instead of exploiting communities of color, as our banking system has done for too long.”

“I really believe public banking is a powerful tool to regenerate our economy based on shared values, investing deeply in affordable housing, struggling small businesses, underserved communities, and green infrastructure,” he added.

The proposal that passed does not create the bank, it just establishes a “San Francisco Reinvestment Working Group” that would figure out how the bank would work.

But the fact that it was passed by a unanimous vote is key. An 11-0 vote is veto-proof, so if Mayor London Breed vetoes the measure, it can still move forward. And while it’s unclear what it will look like as it moves forward, you can follow the SF Public Bank Coalition on Twitter to keep up on it.

 

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Joe Kukura- Millionaire in Training

Joe Kukura- Millionaire in Training

Joe Kukura is a two-bit marketing writer who excels at the homoerotic double-entendre. He is training to run a full marathon completely drunk and high, and his work has appeared in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal on days when their editors made particularly curious decisions.