Bob's Key Issues

Family wage jobs, tax fairness and progressive tax reform, sustainable economic development, access to capital and protecting small local businesses, basic and higher education, corporate accountability, civil rights, protecting our environment, healthy and sustainable communities and neighborhoods, social justice and equity of access to all society has to offer.

Hasegawa proposes state-owned Bank of Washington

Tuesday, February 09 2010 - Bob Hasegawa

Olympia – “Imagine controlling our money and investing to stimulate the economy. Imagine financing student aid, infrastructure, industry and community development. Imagine providing access to capital for small businesses, or otherwise leveraging our resources instead of having to do it with tax incentives,” said state Rep. Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle) about his bill to create a state-owned bank. “Imagine keeping our resources local instead of exporting them as profits, never to be seen again—that’s what this bank could do.”

HB 3162 would create the State Bank of Washington. Under this bill all state funds would be deposited at this bank and would be guaranteed by the state.

The State Bank of Washington would promote agriculture, education, community development, economic development, commerce and industry.

“As we weather this depression, the lack of accessible capital for small businesses is worsening the economic hardships that hundreds of working families are going through,” said Hasegawa, vice chair of the House Finance Committee. “Small businesses are the economic drivers that help Washington’s commerce run smoothly, but when they cannot access the capital they need, the consequences result in chain reactions that invariably end up hurting most, if not all, working families, small businesses and family farms in our state.”

Currently, the State Treasurer invests the state's operating cash in short-term, interest bearing accounts in public depositories. This provides the state with a return while preserving the state’s ability to access the funds. Public depositories are banks and thrifts that are approved to hold state and local government deposits. They may be small community banks or large national banks.

If Washington had a state-owned bank, the Treasurer would deposit state funds into it. This way the state bank could lend money, assume debt and invest in private companies just like a private bank does. This could lead to greater returns on the state funds. It could also provide access to capital to businesses that desperately need it to not only stay afloat, but to thrive. The state could assume risk and could make money, which would lead to greater sums that could be reinvested in loans or provided to the General Fund.

“My bill is modeled after the Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the nation. By the way, North Dakota isn’t going through a financial crisis right now and the Bank of North Dakota is credited with being a large part of the reason for that,” added Hasegawa.

To pass, the bill would require a constitutional amendment.

HB 3162 was heard by the House Financial Institutions & Insurance Committee at a public hearing on Tuesday, February 16 where it received broad support. "I'll be working during the interim period to perfect the bill and develop a strategy for final passage by the next legislature."

Tax Reform

The federal tax cuts for the rich, giveaways to corporations, the Iraq war, record federal budget and trade deficits, and the deepening economic crisis have pushed a huge tax burden onto regular working families to pick up the slack. Here in Washington, the way the state gets money to perform it's essential functions show a pressing need for thorough review for a basic restructuring of our extremely regressive revenue system. I co-sponsored a bill to examine (and repeal if appropriate) corporate tax exemptions as well as a bill to tax the windfall profits of oil companies (see below). I will continue to be a leader to push for solutions on how we can fix our broken system. In a nutshell, we need to clean up our revenue system so people who work hard aren't the hardest hit by taxes.

B&O Tax

Current B &O tax hurts small business because it's based on gross receipts rather than net income- which means you have to pay the tax whether or not you show a profit. This prevents small businesses from reinvesting money into themselves to become profitable. this needs to be linked with any progressive comprehensive tax reform package.

Oil Companies' Windfall Excess Profits

Last quarter of last year Exxon posted the largest profit any company has earned in the history of the world: $36 billion after taxes!! (in just the 3 month period ending last year)>> "If Exxon were a country and revenue were its gross domestic product, its $404 billion in annualized GDP would make it the 18th most productive country in the world, with a bigger economy than Switzerland or Saudi Arabia. Its quarterly revenue was more than the latest quarterly revenue of American Express, Boeing, Caterpiller, DuPont, Walt Disney, Home Depot, Honeywell, coca-cola and McDonalds combined."-Dow Jones & Company

As prices rise at the pump, ordinary folks continue to pump up oil companies' profits. I proposed a fee on the massive windfall profits of oil companies, to bring some of that money back into out communities. energy is essential to our growing economy- the oil corporation's exploitative profits hurt the public and stifle our economy.

Other Key Issues in the 2010 Election

Vote No on I-1082