Farrell is Misinformed

I read with great interest George Farrell’s letter to the editor titled “Time to Tax Credit Unions” in the January 22nd issue of Credit Union Times. As the CEO of MacDill FCU, I learned a lot from Mr. Farrell that I was unaware of. I thought we had 15 locations in five counties, not the eight locations in six counties he refers to, and I recently drove to our furthest location and it only took me one hour and 15 minutes as opposed to the more than one day he mentions. I’m unsure, however, of his mode of transportation. While his rhetoric mimics traditional banking arguments that would allow only those who meet his definition of field of membership to belong to a credit union, he goes one step further and now ties taxation to the number of branches we have. Could taxation based on the number of copiers and fax machines we have be far behind? With regards to his assertions that credit unions fail to mentor or partner with low-income designated credit unions, MacDill FCU is proud to have recently assisted in chartering a local, low-income, faith-based credit union, which we continue to mentor and provide assistance when requested. It is apparent that Mr. Farrell is misinformed, but extremely talented at disseminating distorted information. We in the credit union community can only hope and pray that those who formulate opinions about credit unions do so from factual information rather than his type of fiction. Bob Fisher President/CEO MacDill FCU Tampa, Fla.