Legislative Commentary

It isn’t every day that I am able to talk about Harrington and Washtucna to my Senate colleagues, but today House Bill 1209 gave me a reason.

Without going into great detail, the bill would lift the limit on deposits of public funds from rural counties into credit unions that are exempt from the business and occupation tax (banks aren’t exempt).

To me this isn’t really about credit unions versus banks.

It’s more about causing even more capital to be exported from rural Washington into big-city money centers, at a time when Harrington has just one bank, and Washtucna is now one of the many rura...