Vermont Becomes Key State for Public Banking Push; Opponents Call Activists "Anti-Capitalist"

 Vermonters for a New Economy reported on Thursday, January 23 that "On Wednesday, January 22, the Senate Government Operations Committee heard the first reading of the bill Senator Anthony Pollina submitted to expand the enabling legislation for the Vermont Economic Development Authority to give it a license to act as a public bank and to transfer 10% of the state's deposits to VEDA for lending in Vermont." A study just released by Vermonters for a New Economy, the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont, and the Political and Economic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts concludes that a public bank would create over 2,500 jobs and add hundreds of millions in additional gross state product in the state. According to the Public Banking Institute, public banks are countercyclical, meaning "they are capable of reducing the negative impact of recessions, because they can make money available for local governments and businesses precisely when private banks decrease lending."

In addition to Pollina's State Senate effort, Vermont advocates have launched a town meeting campaign, with Montpelier at its center, but extending to several cities and towns, calling for resolutions in support of a state public bank.  According to Vermont Public Radio News, "The effort aims to place a non-binding resolution on town meeting warnings throughout Vermont in March, encouraging the Legislature to form a public bank. "

Public banking advocates in Vermont have suffered real and personal blowback for their efforts. Rhianna Starheim of Valley News reported December 7 that "Gwen Hallsmith’s advocacy for economic reforms that she believes will ensure sustainability and resiliency for Vermont communities recently cost her a job." Hallsmith's boss was Montpelier Mayor John M. Hollar, a paid lobbyist for Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and who in a private email called Hallsmith's views "fundamentally anti-capitalist in nature," according to William Boardman in his Reader Supported News article of December 29, 2013.