Why Hawaii Needs A State Bank

Hawaii has lost nearly 24,000 homes to foreclosure, more than 33,000 local jobs and 200 local businesses to bankruptcy over the last three years. Many economists are calling this the Great Recession. Many states are calling this an opportunity to reconsider their dependence on the Wall Street banks who caused much of of our current financial crisis through their reliance on predatory and subprime lending, credit swaps and other slight of hand financial moves.

So far this year, Oregon, Washington, Maine, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Maryland have all introduced legislation to create or explore the idea of a State Partnership Bank, which would allow their states to retain their tax revenue in-state and reinvest this revenue in local job creation and economic development instead of sending it out of state to Wall Street banks.

Ted Wheeler, the Oregon State Treasurer has been vocal in his support for an Oregon State Partnership Bank. He would like to see his state's Partnership Bank provide student loans and farm mortgages that are not currently provided by other banks in his state. How could a Hawaii State Partnership Bank serve our public needs?

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