Green Party Public Banking Advocate Running for Comptroller

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ed Heflin

(646) 625-9565

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Cos Cob, CT – July 21, 2018 – Greenwich-area financial consultant and entrepreneur Ed Heflin brings over fifteen years' experience on Wall Street and in academia to his enthusiastic prescription for the numerous simultaneous problems plaguing Connecticut residents, from education costs and business development, to employment, infrastructure, green projects and more—all of which stem from Hartford's dysfunctional bias favoring private investment over public need and opportunity.

A two-time past Green Party of Connecticut candidate for State Senate (District 36) and a state co-coordinator for public banking in the state, Heflin characterizes such a funding vehicle as "democratic banking at its most fundamental, (capable of) returning financial health, wealth and prosperity to the people of Main Street!"

His proposed Public Bank of Connecticut, patterned after the century-old Bank of North Dakota—the one state still sustaining the lowest unemployment rate since the 2008 market collapse—would operate on a mandate to serve the public, rather than out-of-state investment interests, as is the case with commercial financial institutions (so dependable has been the BND model that more than twenty states are looking to duplicate it). As a counterpoint to the subprime mortgage crisis, Heflin adds that "not only would public banking translate into mortgages being readily adjusted to market rate, but interest rates could go as low as 1 to 2 percent—all while lowering taxes."

By facilitating Connecticut residents' ability to, in essence, invest in one another, the standard burdensome dependency on the high-interest bond- and casino-style derivatives markets to pay for infrastructure, public service pensions, business development and other expenses could be a thing of the past. Speaking to the latter, Heflin challenges: "How would you... like a loan at 1 percent for the first five years of your business?" While it is next to impossible for small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups to get funding since 2008, such terms are the norm in North Dakota and go far to generating a vibrant economy with good-paying jobs.

With the tuition of state higher education going from zero in 1950 to about $8000 annually and rising all the time, Heflin points out a public bank could alleviate college expenses by reducing the burden of interest paid on most public projects—a welcome turnaround from an intolerable upward trend that has driven "the cost of these colleges (by) over 12,000 percent from 1980."

Holding six university degrees, including an MBA and a Ph.D. in Physics, for Heflin, education policy across the board is of particular interest, as its erosion and commodification via market-based reforms, like Common Core and charterization, go hand-in-hand with repeated cuts to K-12 schools and teachers (underpaid and laid-off in the thousands): "Districts... desperately in need of money have been forced to borrow at interest rates of 300 per cent or more," imposing needless debt on future generations. "A public bank can fully fund our K-12 education system."

As the Green Party candidate for state Comptroller, Heflin challenges the Democratic incumbent Kevin Lembo and whoever wins the Republican primary (Kurt Miller or Mark Greenberg).

Visit Ed Heflin on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/vote.heflin, which contains his platform, as well as interviews and explanatory videos; queries: 646-625-9565.

About the Green Party of Connecticut

A unity of local Green Party chapters, the GPCT (www.ctgreenparty.org) is committed to grassroots democracy, social justice, non-violence and ecological wisdom. These are the Four Pillars of all Green parties worldwide and are the first four principles of the Ten Key Values of the Green Party (including decentralization, community-based economics, feminism and gender equity, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility, future focus and sustainability). We do not accept contributions from corporate PACs.