The local public works project-scrip program solved two problems in 1933. It gave local unemployed workers jobs in the months before New Deal programs got rolling, and it solved cash flow problems for local governments, merchants and businesses.
Scrip was used like money to pay wages and buy food and other essentials in local participating stores. Eventually it also was used for mortgage and loan payments. Scrip was used at times to pay a portion of city teacher and worker salaries.
The program started in Traverse City on March 15, 1933, when the city issued about $2,000 in scrip currency in 50-cent and $1 amounts. It worked so well that the city boosted the amount another $2,000 about a month later. The local program ended a year later.
Jobless workers were hired and paid $2 a day in scrip. At that time, $2 had the spending power of about $32, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculators.
Merchants who received scrip had to place a 2-cent stamp on the back, date and initial it, then return it to circulation. In other words, they sacrificed 2 cents on a dollar's worth of business.
Unemployed workers had paying jobs. The city, which had no money in its welfare coffers for public relief work, was able to continue park development, clean up the Boardman River and its banks, as well as maintain and improve roads. The stamps also helped pay the city's printing costs.
After 52 transfers, the scrip could be redeemed by merchants with the city treasurer for the face amount. If the merchant held it more than a week, another 2-cent stamp had to be affixed.
-- Loraine Anderson
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