Well, that’s pretty straightfoward
October 25, 2008 | COHHIO, Ohio, industry critics, media coverage, states | Comments (0)Dix News in Ohio explains both sides of Issue 5 (the payday lending referendum).
Not a time to limit financial choices
October 10, 2008 | COHHIO, Lima News, OH CRL, Ohio, customers, employees, industry, media coverage, positive media coverage, states | Comments (0)No kidding. Here’s an article out of Lima, Ohio that makes that point in spades.
Clever headline
October 7, 2008 | COHHIO, OH CRL, Ohio, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)This story, “Payday Lenders Bank on Voters” has a clever headline, but the rest is just a summation of the Ohio situation.
Perhaps they believe in “free will”
October 7, 2008 | COHHIO, Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, industry, industry critics, media coverage, positive media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (1)The Ohio Christian Alliance is supporting repeal of H.R. 545 and sending out a brochure urging citizens to vote “No” on the payday lending referendum. (Remember, NO is a vote repeal the law and save the payday lending industry.) From the story:
Breaking from many other Ohio religious leaders, the Ohio Christian Alliance is siding with the payday-lending industry, urging voters to reject State Issue 5.
The Christian Alliance has produced a voters guide advocating a “no” vote on the referendum and the continuation of the 391 percent annual interest rate ($15 per $100 on a two-week loan) charged by payday lenders.
We’re on the side of consumer choice
October 1, 2008 | COHHIO, OH CRL, Ohio, Toledo Blade, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)From the Toledo Blade:
Jason Gloyd, chairman of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes, or COAST, labeled the payday lending law “creepy” and “Orwellian.”
Issue 5 was placed on the statewide ballot by the payday lending industry, seeking to repeal portions of a law passed in May drastically curtailing the amount of interest lenders can charge.
Mr. Gloyd attacked provisions in the law that he said create a database of loan transactions and require people who take out payday loans to undergo education in “the government’s values.”
“The privacy intrusions implicated in Issue 5 are simply unprecedented in modern life,” Mr. Gloyd said. “After two transactions in a 90-day period they force you into a government re-education class that you have to pay for.”
A group of about 15 people, some of them employees or owners of payday lending businesses, stood behind Mr. Gloyd during his news conference, holding signs portraying the face of “Big Brother.”
Sandy Theis, a spokesman for the Vote Yes on Issue 5 committee, said the database that Mr. Gloyd cited would not be repealed by Issue 5. She said the industry tracks loans in a database now and “they have consistently allowed serious invasions of privacy.”
EPluribus Media calls for ballot initiative reform
September 25, 2008 | COHHIO, Center for Responsible Lending, Ohio, industry, industry critics, states | Comments (0)John Michael Spinelli thinks new laws need to be enacted to change the way Ohio’s signature gathering works:
Last week saw payday lenders capitulated to their opponents, agreeing to subtract 13,000 signatures from the 422,000 handed in in late August. Those forfeited signatures came about because petitions circulated by a California company that didn’t file required paperwork prior to gathering voter signatures, along with other problems.
These administrative stumbles, as plentiful this year as in years past, could be solved if the General Assembly would establish a process whereby any petition circulator would first register with the state, which would impose a fee on them for the privilege of doing so. That fee would pay to verify the legitimacy of the company hired to circulate petitions, perform background checks on those people the company hired to actually gather signatures and then issue them a petition circulator ID card, complete with their picture, the name of the group they work for, a number specific to them, which they would then put on the petitions they managed so any official could identify them immediately, and take action if circumstances warranted.
The “Big Brother” ad
September 23, 2008 | COHHIO, Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, customers, industry, industry critics, media coverage, states | Comments (1)Here’s the Columbus Dispatch’s take on Ohioans For Finanical Freedom’s new ad.
Hot off the press
September 19, 2008 | COHHIO, Ohio, industry, industry critics, states | Comments (0)For immediate release:
Friday, September 19, 2008
Statement on Issue 5 Signature Status and Settlement
Attribute to Kim Norris, Ohioans For Financial Freedom spokesperson:
“We are committed to preserving financial options for hard-working Ohioans. Should our effort fall short in terms of signatures, rest assured we will work hard to file supplemental signatures as allowed by law.
While we disagree with our opponents on many fronts, we agree with them that the people’s right to vote is too sacred to be undermined by those who fail to comply with state regulations. We will not tolerate anything less than strict compliance.
In this instance, Arno Political Consultants has not provided evidence to either the Committee or the Secretary of State that the company properly filed a Form 15. We would rather lose the signatures collected by this company than compromise the efforts of hundreds of other dutiful circulators. We are continuing to move forward asking Voters to Say No on Issue 5 to preserve their financial choices.”
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The Soviet propaganda machine
September 19, 2008 | Bill Faith, COHHIO, industry critics | Comments (0)Here’s the website of our Ohio opposition. Note the lie in the second bullet on top that H.R. 545 “ensures small loans will still be available.” How can that be assured? Isn’t it up to businesses to decide if they can make them available?
Ohio showdown on Friday
September 15, 2008 | Bill Faith, COHHIO, Columbus Business First, Ohio, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (1)A hearing on the signature gathering issue has been scheduled. From the Columbus Dispatch story:
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has tapped a well-known Columbus attorney to decide whether to recommend that a number of payday lending signatures should be tossed out for a paperwork violation.
The Yes on 5 committee, which is fighting a proposed referendum by the payday industry that seeks to partially overturn tough, new regulations on the short-term lenders, is arguing that California-based Arno did not properly file what is known as a Form 15. Ohio law requires that anyone who is getting paid to supervise or organize a signature-gathering effort for a statewide referendum must file the form. Arno collected some of the names for the referendum effort, which needs 241,366 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Karl Schneider, a partner in the firm of Maguire & Schneider, has scheduled a hearing for Friday morning, when he will listen to arguments by the Yes on Issue 5 committee as to why signatures collected by Arno Political Consultants should be invalidated.
The Payday Pundit will talk to people in Ohio and post more on Tuesday about what this all means.
