Susan Harman, California Public Banking Alliance, Oakland

Dan Walters’ April 28 Commentary on Assemblyman David Chiu’s Assembly Bill 857, the local public bank bill, is a dumb comment on a very smart bill.

In his commentary, Walters writes says that shifting local governmental funds away from the Wall Street banks they’re in now will have “virtually no impact on the big guys.”

I suspect the public relations nightmare alone, when San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, San Diego and several counties pull their money out of Wall Street, will have a substantial impact on “the big guys.”

Even more importantly, the legislation would have a healthy impact on all those local economies, as their public banks partner with community banks and credit unions to issue loans to small businesses that will hire local people and buy local products.