PBI Newsletter, 1111 - The PA Project, PBI National Conference

Founder and Chair
The Pennsylvania Project

The Pennsylvania Project, Inc.  is a not-for-profit and non-partisan Pennsylvania public corporation. We are filing for IRS 501c4 status. This means contributions are not tax deductible, but that we have considerable latitude to participate in the political process. And we will.

Observing the progress, or lack thereof, of legislative efforts for public banking in other states, we concluded that in too many cases, legislation was introduced before a foundation of support was created in those constituencies to which legislators and other policy makers might respond, governors and state treasurers among them.

Our first effort was to create a web site (www.papublicbankproject.org). We formed our corporate vehicle, raised some funds and put a college intern to work building a 1,000 person contact list among: community bankers, local elected officials, chambers of commerce, tax payer and civic organizations, local newspapers and radio stations, unions, and others.

At the same time, directors and members have been making contact with key figures among the constituent groups noted above.

In January, we will begin distribution to our contact list of an initial informational and educational package, drawing on the substantial research and information provided by the PBI and its national partners. At that time, our members will begin personal visits to as many on our contact list as we can manage, and host forums and informational meetings throughout the state.

We will avail ourselves of the available modern telecommunication and social-networking capabilities to widen the circle.

Later, we intend to host a forum in the state capitol, targeting legislators and policy makers and featuring  speakers from PBI and our partners, who can describe how a public Bank of Pennsylvania might benefit the people of our commonwealth, as well as describe the “best practices” of capitalization, governance, management, accountability, transparency, and risk management.

While this outreach is underway, we will work with PBI, the national partners and other state public banking organizations to draft model legislation, which we will seek to have introduced later in 2012.

Then we fight it out in legislature during the 2012 election cycle, when all of our state representatives, half the senators, and the state treasurer will be on the ballot, and must meet the voters in public, not only the lobbyists in private.

This takes money and we have begun an active fundraising campaign. It is our intention to “upstream” 10 percent of what we raise to the PBI, to support its critical work.  We suggest that all local public banking organizations do the same.