Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin vows boycott of U.S. Treasury bonds in protest of President Trump
Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin set off a fierce debate on Wednesday at a City Council budget hearing, after declaring her office would no longer invest the city's money in U.S. treasury bonds.
Conyears-Ervin, who is running for Congress, said she made the decision to protest President Trump's "authoritarian regime."
The move was condemned by several aldermen.
"I was upstairs, and I thought my ears deceived me. Did you just say you're going to disinvest from the United States?" Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) said. "I'm trying to make sure I understand why an American city, which 53 members of its elected body take an oath to the United States Constitution to support, defend — that is our values. To say we're not going to invest in our values? Saying that we no longer as a city support the United States of America?"
Conyears-Ervin defended her plan, saying "It's a bold statement, isn't it? And we need it to be."
"Actually, I think it's a very dangerous and reckless statement," Lopez said.
Ald. Bill Conway (34th) told her she might want to rethink that decision, noting that treasury bonds offer a guaranteed rate of return.
"It is pretty well-known axiom that the United States Treasury is by far the most liquid and secure debt instrument in the history of the world," he said. "
The city's portfolio is worth about $10 to $11 billion. Conyears-Ervin said the city held $200 million in treasury securities within the past three years, and said the city has other comparable options that could bring a similar rate of return, including corporate bonds and money market accounts.
"We will continue to invest in securities that offer a competitive return, and we will not compromise the safety of the assets, the liquidity of the assets, or the rate of return," she said. "We will invest in the value of the residents of Chicago, and Chicagoans do not want us to bankroll the regime, the authoritarian regime of Donald Trump, where he has waged a war on our city."