Ohio update
July 19, 2008 | Ohio, local issues | Comments (1)epluribus Media has this blurb in its roundup of Ohio news from this week:
Legal Fencing Continues Between Payday Lenders, Opponents Over Initiative Language
In a news release to OhioNewsBureau from opponents of an initiative that, if enough valid signatures are collected to the November ballot, would overturn the key section of a bill passed and signed into law that would sharply reduce the interest a payday lender could charge a borrower over a two-week period from an annualized percentage rate of 391 percent to a mere 28 percent. This industry says it will drive it out of business in Ohio, and is trying to fashion lanaguage acceptable to the Ohio AG that provides a short, concise and accurate version that voters will understand if and when they are presented with an opportunity to vote on it.
Opponents fighting the initiative characterized the latest filing by the initiative group – Reject HB 545 Committee – as an “incremental” change related to common pleas court case filed a few weeks ago and assigned to Judge Horton that concerns the Attorney General’s 7/10 denial of the second petition.
‘The payday lenders can’t win under the rules so they are stalling for more time,” wrote Sandy Theis, spokesman for the group fighting the initiative. Theis said the group managing the initiative campaign, support by the payday lending industry, wants more time to collect the nearly 250,000 signatures needed to make the November ballot.
Payday lenders and those who support them say any effort to stop them from gathering enough signatures for their initiative to be voted on strikes at a fundamental right of democracy, the right to vote.
“It’s ironic that Mr. Faith (an opponent of payday lending) thinks Ohioans should not have the opportunity to exercise one of our most democratic rights – the right to vote,” said Kim Norris, spokesperson for the Reject H.B. 545 Committee. “There is no better reminder than the 4th of July of the importance of allowing everyone to exercise their right to vote.” [Payday Pundit]
Comments»
They are going to do anything that they can to keep us from having a fair shake and get this on the ballot. They probibly don’t get their double secret bonus if this doesnt go away. Bill Faith proves what kind of idiot that he is and talks out of his pooper before he thinks. You gotta get the fact before you open your mouth, if not you show what kind of idiot you really are.