Welcome to Colorado Public Banking

[We are pleased to announce that our book, 7 Steps to Global Economic and Spiritual Transformation, is now available online at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.]

The current movement for creating a publicly owned state bank in Colorado began in May 2011, with the informal gathering of the Main Street Partnership Bank coalition, comprised of representatives from the state legislature, public and non-profit lending agencies, economic and social justice groups, and public banking advocates.

After six months of research, presentations, and discussion, the legislators stewarding the group decided, under pressure from banking organizations, to abandon the strategy of bringing a bill to the floor and instead concentrate on piecemeal savings, such as finding less costly ways to do banking with the private banks.

As a founder and former board member of the Public Banking Institute, as well as an activist since the late '60's, I found this decision a sellout of democratic and spiritual principles.

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” --Samuel Adams

A few months later, a friend of mine, a Colorado attorney, and I filed two amendments to the state constitution and began the initiative process to put these amendments on the ballot. The first amendment would create a state-owned bank and the second amendment would permit cities, counties, and other tax districts, who meet minimum capitalization requirements, to create their own publicly owned banks.

After gaining approval on the wording, from the Legislative Council, and on the title, from the Secretary of State's title board, we were prepared to create the petitions and collect the requisite signatures to get on the ballot.

The Colorado Bankers Association and the Independent Bankers of Colorado, two organizations that, as is the case in all states, have been captured by transnational banking interests (who are putting small banks out of business), petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court to block our efforts.

A few weeks later, the Colorado Supreme Court granted the banks' petition, but refused to issue a written opinion as to why. Five months later, when the court showed no signs of fulfilling its responsibilities in a timely manner, we were forced to petition the Colorado Supreme Court to "expedite" their written opinion. What we found is that, essentially, the court upheld the bankers' petition on a technicality: according to the initiative rules in Colorado--which have been gradually made more difficult over the years, to prevent citizens from challenging state laws dictated by the banks and their corporations through the legislature--all parties to an initiative must be present at any hearings. Conveniently, the title board had scheduled a hearing while I was committed to attending the Public Banking Institute's first annual conference in Philadelphia, at the end of April 2012.

Now we find ourselves in an odd-year, when initiatives must be tax related. Luckily, our publicly owned state bank initiative includes a provision that TABOR (the Douglas Bruce "cripple the government" amendment) shall not apply to a state owned bank. Essentially, this would allow a Colorado public bank to supplement state revenues, potentially enabling the state to cut taxes while increasing services, as is occurring in North Dakota, the only state in the U.S. to have its own bank.

It is our hope that the bankers will once more be forced to express their opposition in public (rather than behind closed doors as they do at the legislature).

Regardless of how many attempts it takes to get one or both or our initiatives on the ballot and approved, an initiative is a continually progressive strategy that educates more Colorado citizens every year regarding the benefits of a public bank while, at the same time, making it clear exactly who would undermine the state's ability to serve its residents.



Copyright 2013, Robert Bows

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[We are pleased to announce that our book, 7 Steps to Global Economic and Spiritual Transformation, is now available online at Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.]