Pacific Sun Weekly 06.08.2012 - Section 1

Page 11

credence to social equity than a big for-proďŹ t bank would consider as it stands astride its short-term bottom line. A state bank can assess the true long-term value of making loans to students, investing in infrastructure rehabilitation. That’s just what’s happened in North Dakota. “I think there’s a whole problem with our American capitalist system,â€? Brown said. “Too much of our business is funded by shareholders rather than banks. If you fund through a bank, you still are an independent business. You just have a loan to the bank. If you fund through shareholders, you’ve given up your autonomy. The shareholders now own the business, and they’re running it to extract proďŹ ts.â€? In California’s current economic and political climate, three knee-jerk remedies routinely get tossed on the table: cut spending; raise taxes; sell off public assets. But the public-banking model offers an alternative. A public bank can allow a state to create its own credit to beneďŹ t residents. A state bank in California could, for example, invest in green energy and high-tech start-ups that conventional for-proďŹ t banks shy away from while they protect their loads of stashed cash. The investments would, obviously, stimulate the state economy at a time when the federal government and the Federal Reserve have said states are on their own. Despite this model, politicians remain timid. Brown thinks there’s another reason state bank proposals are having a hard time

getting off the runway. State treasurers view the proposal as an intrusion into their territory. But, said Brown, that doesn’t have to be the case. A state bank can be, in essence, a department under the state treasurer. Still, it’s new and unfamiliar territory. “They argue that we already have the money invested, and we’re only allowed to invest in safe things like government bonds. But you can still do that. We’re just talking about putting your revenues in this bank, except for that little bit you need for capital. There’s plenty of general fund money that’s sitting there earning one-half percent of interest.â€? The state would be “better off owning its own bank than not owning a bank,â€? said Brown. And, she says, California and other states should learn from North Dakota’s success. A state bank like the BND returns more than income on investments, she said. The BND returned more than $300 million to the state’s general fund during the past 10 years. It also stimulated the state’s economy with increased loans to small businesses, farms and students. That should be part of any cost-beneďŹ t analysis in California, according to Brown and the Public Banking Institute. If, that is, anyone in Sacramento is brave enough to move the ball. < Contact the writer at peter@pseidman.com The December 2010 Ellen Hodgson Brown presentation can be viewed at: http://marin.granicus.com/MediaPlayer. php?publish_id=648

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< 10 WildCare applied heat, oxygen, fluids and antibiotics to revive the otter; by May 28 she was alert and “very feisty.� The sensitive nature of river otter young requires special facilities; a wildlife hospital near Lake Tahoe stepped forward to offer assistance; patient 681 was transferred to Tahoe on May 30, but per California Fish and Game regulations, she will return to Marin for release.

Grand jury to Marin morgue plans:‘Live, damn it, live!’ Marin needs to bring its morgue plans back to life. At least that’s what a Marin Civil Grand Jury is insisting. In a report released last week titled“Marin County Morgue:Where Do We Go From Here?,�the grand jury takes the Marin Board of Supervisors to task for sitting in limbo in the wake of previous grand jury calls for better morgue operations; grand jury reports from 2001 and 2009 were met with promises by the Board of Supervisors—which has thus far failed to breathe life into county plans for a morgue. In fact, $1.75 million that was set aside by the county for forensic renovations were instead used in the purchase of the Commons Building, at 1600 Los Gamos Road in San Rafael, for eventual use as a new sheriff’s-operations center. “It has been 12 years since the first recommendation was made and Marin County still has no morgue facility,�the report states.“The Marin County Civil Grand Jury must ask‘Why?’ �Currently, the vast majority of autopsies performed by the sheriff-coroner’s office are conducted within a rotation of three local funeral homes, with a handful of cases being referred to the Napa County Morgue. According to the grand jury, last year 110 autopsies were done at the funeral homes and five were performed in Napa.The grand jury investigation found that the funeral home autopsy facilities are less than ideal: Rooms are small- to medium-sized; lighting and ventilation is poor to acceptable; and sanitary conditions are only“adequate.�The Napa morgue, however, is more state-of-the-art and, according to grand jury investigators, the Napa County Sheriff-Coroner has expressed interest in taking over all of Marin’s autopsies and exams. After crunching numbers, the grand jury estimates that if all of Marin’s 2011 autopsies had been performed in Napa, it would have cost $225,000—$115,000 more than was spent using the funeral homes. But, the report suggests,“this cost can be negotiated.� According to the grand jury, the sheriff-coroner’s department is currently gauging interest from local funeral homes to see if a single facility would step forward to be developed into a“suitably equipped autopsy suite�to perform all of Marin’s morgue functions.The grand jury describes this as a “Band-Aid�solution to the county’s morgue needs. The report concludes with a recommendation that the Board of Supes“approve retrofitting a Marin County-owned space for a morgue in either the Marin Commons building or the Civic Center.�In the interim, the grand jury recommends using the Napa County Morgue for all autopsies.

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