From Bob Hasegawa:
I know many of you have been calling and emailing to try to find out what is happening with the state bank proposal. Firstly, thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to help make this a reality. Many of you have been working hard in your communities to help spread the word about our efforts.
The taskforce members and staff have been hard at work over the past few months in order to get a bill ready for the upcoming legislative session. While we are still working on the details and the specifics of how to best establish this legacy institution, the need for it is clear. While working on developing potential lending programs for the public bank the taskforce heard about unmet needs in a variety of areas. For example, there is an enormous amount of infrastructure funding needs in the state. Over the next ten years our K-12 school facilities alone will need approximately $5.7 billion for renovations, repairs, construction, etc. A drinking water infrastructure needs survey and assessment revealed that we will need to provide $9.756 billion over the next twenty years for water systems to provide safe drinking water to the public. Our vision is to build a bank that will leverage our taxpayer’s money to work for us so that we can provide adequate funding to projects like these, while at the same time creating jobs that will put people to work on making these projects a reality.
Next taskforce meeting canceled
The taskforce was scheduled to meet again on Tuesday, December 13th in Olympia. However, due to the special session we have canceled that meeting to give us some more working time with staff to get the bill draft done in the next few weeks. I will update you all when we have a bill number so that you can track its progress.
How can I help?
I know that many of you have been calling and asking how you can support my efforts to get this bill passed. Right now I think the most pressing thing will be to get community support in all the legislative districts across the state. We need people all over contacting their respective representatives, senators and the Governor’s office urging them to vote yes on the bill when it comes before them.
