​Public banking activists in California and across the country are celebrating the passage of AB 857, authorizing California cities, counties, and the state to create their own public banks. The bill was signed into law in October by Governor Gavin Newsom after being filed at the start of the session by Assembly members David Chiu and Miguel Santiago.  But the bill’s filing was preceded by years of city-level advocacy, with local public bank groups in Los Angeles, Oakland, Humboldt County, and San Francisco, among others. These groups worked with city councils and county government and built connections across issues to bring a diverse coalition together in support of the bill once it was filed.
 
With San Francisco and Los Angeles both working on filing bank plans under the new bill, look for these cities to join North Dakota and American Samoa, as well as dozens of other countries where public banks are established, in being able to provide non-profit, transparent, accountable and affordable finances for public purposes—putting public money to work for the common good, rather than Wall Street profits.
 
Alliance Co-chair Nancy Price was one of dozens of CA Public Banking Alliance campaigners who met with Assembly and Senate committee members in the spring and early summer to help shepherd the bill through several committee hearings and votes, and to help fend off unfriendly amendments. “The combined efforts of Coalition members and endorsers of this bill, as well as calls to the legislature and committee members and in-district visits led to success,” she said. “And this California win will give a huge push to Alliance sponsored campaigns” for public banks, currently underway in Massachusetts and Portland OR.

At a time when, across the country, communities are told to cut back on water usage to protect the environment while bottled water corporations pump water for their own profit, the people of a small town in southwest Maine have taken a large step toward local control and long term protection of water.
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At their August 20 town meeting, Brownfield residents voted 136-17 to enact a new “Town of Brownfield ME Water Extraction Ordinance.” The ordinance puts limits on how much groundwater can be pumped from local wells. It also ensures the town can stop water extraction if testing demonstrates that groundwater levels are falling. In addition, the ordinance also bars large-scale extraction for bottling and sale, and puts controls on water-related truck traffic.