Bernero warns Wall St. banks

Lansing -- 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 Thursday.

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

Bernero, the Democratic nominee for governor, wants to establish a state-run bank to make loans to small businesses that cannot get help from the commercial lending market.

Terry Stanton, spokesman for the state Department of Treasury, said legislation likely would be needed to start a state bank, depending upon the extent of services to be available.

Bill Nowling, spokesman for the Republican nominee Rick Snyder, said the Bernero proposal to pull the state's funds out of large lending institutions "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 said.

Bernero's stop Thursday at Decker's Coffee Co. was part of his "Fighting for Main Street" campaign tour.

Bernero and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, the Democrat's lieutenant governor nominee, listened to concerns about Michigan from Lansing residents who were hand-picked to represent various sectors of the community -- a church pastor, student, autoworker, police officer, environmentalist, business owner and others.

One participant, Sagar Sheth, president of Moebius Technologies, a 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.

Sheth said the company was able to secure a loan for capital expenditures to keep the company going with the help of Bernero and the city's economic development department staff.