Olson: Protecting credit unions means protecting families’ financial future

Attacks on the credit union tax status are a direct threat to the financial well-being of North and South Dakotans, Dakota Credit Union Association President/CEO and America’s Credit Unions board member Jeff Olson wrote in Inforum, a publication covering both states.

“Now is the time to contact your representatives and tell them: Credit unions are not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperatives that exist to serve people, not shareholders,” Olson wrote. “Our tax status isn’t about asset size, it’s about our mission. Protecting credit unions means protecting the financial future of Dakota families, small businesses, farmers and veterans. Let’s make sure lawmakers hear us loud and clear before it’s too late.”

He takes issue with banks’ latest push to tax credit unions with more than $1 billion in assets, calling out that it is just an attempt to divide credit unions, and eventually “eliminating credit unions altogether. If banks succeed in taxing the largest credit unions today, smaller credit unions will be next.”

The $75 million in benefits Dakota credit unions delivered in the last 12 months would be “severely diminished” with any change to the credit union tax status, “leading to higher costs for consumers and potentially reduced access to essential financial services.”

Olson’s op-ed ran in a paper that reaches Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and is the latest from a credit union leader that details what’s at stake in the credit union tax battle:

• Century Credit Union President/CEO Joshua Wallace wrote in the Southeast Missourian, which serves a large number of constituents represented by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo.
• America’s Credit Unions immediate past board chair Brian Schools wrote in the Virginian Pilot that the current threat to credit unions’ tax status “could undermine their ability to serve the very people they were created to help.”

America's Credit Unions urges stakeholders to send messages to policymakers via the Don’t Tax My Credit Union website.  A press kit with resources to help write op-eds, letters to the editor, and more is available on the campaign’s Member Activation Program site.