News

By David Jette, Sydiot.com. Los Angeles has 44 departments and bureaus who manage $5,549,000,000 in annual revenue collected from tax, fee and fine payers, as much as the whole country of Iceland.

At any given time, there is an average of $45 billion in public money sitting in various operational accounts, reserve funds or short- and medium-term investments. That money is currently held in accounts at commercial banks, where it earns next to zero interest. The city paid over $109 million in annual and transactional fees to these commercial banks last year. The banks then use these deposits to bolster their own lending activity, earning interest for their shareholders.

Commercial banks are under no obligation to lend money to businesses within the city of Los Angeles, or to extend credit to projects which aim to make a positive impact on its residents and communities. Instead, the power and resources we give to banks is used in the most profitable lending sectors, where they add to artificially high housing prices, subsidize industries with harmful externalities like fossil fuels and defense, and even engage in widespread fraud against their customers, all in the interest of greater shareholder profit.

Phoenix Goodman, co-founder of Public Bank L.A. debates with Jack Humphreville, member of the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates on 89.3 KPCC on the creation of a Los Angeles municipal bank.

By Emily Alpert Reyes, LA Times. Los Angeles should explore whether to create a municipal bank that would finance affordable housing and throw its doors open to the cannabis industry, City Council President Herb Wesson said Tuesday.

Wesson tossed out the idea as part of a sweeping speech that set out his agenda for his final term. In addition to the bank, Wesson said L.A. must take new and innovative steps to battle racism, protect immigrants and build more affordable housing.

“When our grandchildren tell stories of us, what will they say? Will they say we were brave?” asked Wesson, who recently was reelected as council president. “When the history books remember us, will they say that we did everything within our power to improve the lives of the people we represent?”