After more than 20 years of effort, credit unions have recently received legislative authority in Oregon to accept deposits of public funds. The Governor signed House Bill 3700 into law on March 27, 2010. This means that local governments and local agencies will be able use our credit union as an alternative to other financial services providers. By allowing local credit unions like Rogue to accept these deposits, the regulation provides the opportunity for the money collected by property taxes and other fees to stay invested in the community that they came from.
The law will not become effective until January of 2013, but we have finally won the opportunity to do what should never have been denied to credit unions. This was a hard-fought, contentious battle for credit unions and for the legislators who courageously supported this fair and just new law. We are honored to recognize the legislators who supported this important legislation and who serve our members.
• Representative Dennis Richardson
• Representative Sal Esquivel
• Representative Peter Buckley
• Representative Bill Garrard
• Senator Jason Atkinson
Without their support, I would not be able to write this message. I am pleased that these folks took the opportunity to fully understand this issue and did not fall prey to the rhetoric from competing interests. We are fortunate to have such dedicated public servants. I was particularly impressed by a personal call from Representative Esquivel to make sure he understood the issues. I also know that our staff spoke directly to Representative Richardson on this issue.
With over 47,000 members living in Jackson, Josephine, and Klamath counties, Rogue represents nearly 13% of the total population in the three county region. We know that our members vote and will vote to protect their credit union. In my opinion, with their support of HB 3700, the legislators listed above have definitely shown that they will vote to protect their credit union also!
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