The Detroit News - Bernero Wants State to Cut Ties with Banks not in Foreclosure Program

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By Karen Bouffard

If Virg Bernero is elected governor, Michigan will pull its money out of Wall Street banks that won't work with the state's businesses and residents, the Democratic nominee announced today.

"We're not going to invest in Wall Street if they're not going to invest in us," Bernero told about a dozen citizens at a Lansing coffee shop. "We're going to take our money out of Wall Street and create the 'Main Street Bank.'

"This is the fight: Main Street vs. Wall Street -- it's not just a slogan. We're going to get banks to work with people instead of taking their homes from them."

Bernero has said he wants to establish a state-run bank to make loans to small businesses that cannot get help from the commercial lending market.

Bill Nowling, spokesman for Rick Snyder, Bernero's opponent in the November election, wouldn't comment on Bernero's plan to pull money out of Bank of America and other large lending institutions, saying it "reeks a little of political pandering so we're not going to go there."

Creating a state bank in Michigan doesn't make sense, he added.

"There's only one state in the nation that has a state bank, and that's the Bank of North Dakota," Nowling said, adding there was a shortage of privately-own banks in North Dakota, a problem Michigan doesn't share. "They have 680,000 people there -- that's roughly the size of Macomb County.

"Creating a bank doesn't mean we're going to give money away, or that it's going to create jobs."

Bernero's stop at Decker's Coffee Co. was part of his "Fighting for Main Street" campaign tour. He visited Bay City, Saginaw and Grand Rapids earlier this week.

Bernero and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, who will be lieutenant governor if Bernero wins, listened to concerns about Michigan from Lansing residents who were hand-picked to represent various sectors of the community -- a church pastor, student, auto worker, police officer, environmentalist, business owner and others.

The Lansing mayor faces Republican nominee Rick Snyder of Ann Arbor in November's election.

Canova Brooks, 65, of Lansing, talked about how her home was foreclosed when she got behind on her payments after her husband died. The couple had paid on time for 33 years, and had the balance whittled down to $44,000. As Bernero and Lawrence scribbled notes, she said the bank wouldn't work with her to avoid foreclosure.

Sagar Sheth, president of Moebius Technologies, a Lansing start-up that makes medical implants and surgical instruments, said his company's line of credit was yanked by the bank even though they always made their payments on time.

"First they locked it up, then they took it away," Sheth said, adding Bernero and Lansing's economic development staff helped the company secure a loan for capital expenditures to keep the company going.

"We're growing, we have excellent credit, and our value far exceed our debt. We're capable of creating high-paying jobs, but if that's going to happen we've got to think of ways to invest in businesses.

"It's very un-American to keep businesses from growing."

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