Katus for Treasurer: Keep State Money Local!

Tom Katus just gave me a reason to vote for him for state treasurer. The Democratic candidate says he wants to put more of the state's money in local banks and credit unions. Instead of propping up Wells Fargo and other national players with our taxpayer dollars, Katus wants to let local lenders like the Miner County Bank and East River Fderal Credit Union mind a bigger share of our money.

Wow! Katus must be on the same wavelength as Ariana Huffington and I about community banks. I just read about Katus's "bank local!" position in last night's MDL, but Katus has been offering this idea since early in his campaign (shows how much attention we pay to the treasurer's race). It makes sense. Just as we'd expect state government to hire South Dakota contractors whenever feasible to maximize the circulation of dollars in the local economy, we should expect the state to use its savings (assuming it has savings, when there's a huge deficit to plug and no federal stimulus coming to protect the Legislature from hard decisions next time around... but that's another issue) to support lending and investment in as many of our communities as possible.

Getting folks' attention when you're running for any statewide office below governor can be hard. Tom Katus's desire to shift more of the state treasury from Wall Street to Main Street deserves our attention.