It’s official
October 23, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, states | Comments (2)The Ohio referendum is on the ballot. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
The Ohio Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday that payday lending groups had gathered enough valid signatures to qualify Issue 5 for the November ballot.
Wasn’t easy.
Knock me over with a feather
October 16, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, customers, industry, media coverage, positive media coverage, states | Comments (1)A Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist supports the payday lending industry:
The stifling cap is the state’s way of telling payday lenders to close shop, take their jobs, and disappear.
It’s ridiculous, self-righteous public policy.
The nation is busy bailing out irresponsible banks and reassuring wealthy depositors.
But if the payday lenders disappear, where will the desperate and poor like Baker turn?
Dying city
October 14, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, media coverage, states | Comments (0)Cleveland took action to limit payday lending stores. It’s leadership like this that makes Cleveland the city that it is:
The measure, passed unanimously, allows for one payday lending or check-cashing store for every 20,000 residents and prohibits a shop from locating within 1,000 feet of another.
“They tend to cluster together,” said Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman, who sponsored the legislation. “In my opinion, this is the next wave of foreclosures.” Cleveland’s new regulations are modeled after a zoning code amendment passed in Parma this year. The large suburb allows one store for every 10,000 residents.
Bull
October 8, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial writers are at it again, misusing data and mixing up industries. From today’s editorial:
Using data released in January by the Brookings Institution after a nationwide study, the Minneapolis Fed charted the locations of payday lenders, check-cashing outlets and the like in its Federal Reserve district: Minnesota, Montana, the Dakotas, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and 26 Wisconsin counties.
Payday lenders and check cashers are not the same. Check cashing customers are poor, they don’t have bank accounts, so check cashers locate in poor neighborhoods for the convenience of their customers. Mixing payday lenders with check cashers is a common tactic of critics who don’t really care about the facts.
Takes one to know one
October 6, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, media coverage, states | Comments (0)Thomas Suddes, a Left-wing columnist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer (of course), rants and raves in his usual fashion.
Fear of economy is not misplaced
September 30, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (0)The Cleveland Plain Dealer, a motley collection of elitists and hippies, doesn’t like the new Ohioans for Financial Freedom ad that focuses on job losses. They say it plays to people’s economic fears.
No kidding you nitwits! Ohio is competing with Michigan to become America’s first “third-world” state. Do you think economic fear is not a reasonable response to potentially losing 6,000 jobs?
Comment of the Day
September 18, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer | Comments (0)I’m pretty sick and tired of the Plain Dealer and their clearly biased opinion of the Payday Industry.
The Cleveland Area has so many more issues that need to be addressed ASAP than eliminating financial options. According to Forbes.com– one of top 10 cities that’s struggling, high foreclosures, unemployment…. I mean come on!!!
The Plain Dealer is out of touch with reality.
We’ve reported on this before
September 17, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, alternatives, industry, media coverage, states | Comments (0)And we’re still not impressed.
This Cleveland Plain Dealer story reports on the FDIC’s “small loan” program which signed up 30 banks which have made about 3,000 loans so far. And, none are really payday loan type services.
Does anyone get a sense the Cleveland Plain Dealer is campaigning against the industry?
Consider the source
September 17, 2008 | Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, industry, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (2)The Cleveland Plain Dealer is hoping we don’t have enough signatures for the Ohio referendum. Although, the way they write the story, they seem pretty sure of themselves. I think they may be in for a surprise.
Ohio opponents throw hail mary pass
September 12, 2008 | Bill Faith, Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH CRL, Ohio, industry, industry critics, media coverage, regulation, states | Comments (2)This time they are trying to get the referendum thrown off the ballot through a legal manuever involving the signature gathering process. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer story:
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said she will appoint a hearing officer to decide whether consultants hired to collect signatures to get the payday lending measure on the ballot properly filed the petitions with her office.
If they did not, Brunner could invalidate the signatures and strip the referendum from the ballot. Her decision is expected by Sept. 25.
The referendum seeks to repeal a law capping interest payday lenders can charge on loans at 28 percent and revert to previous practice, which allowed the lenders to charge rates and fees that amount to a 391 annual percentage rate.
ackers of the new law, the Vote Yes on Issue 5 Committee, said some consultants hired by Ohioans for Financial Freedom — the payday lenders — to collect signatures did not file a necessary form.
Anyone supervising the collection of signatures must file a Form 15, which asks for the circulators’ names and addresses and the names of their employers before they can start collecting signatures.
The secretary’s office said it cannot find any evidence that a Form 15 was filed by Arno Political Consultants, a California firm hired by the lenders to collect many of its signatures.
“One of the penalties if you don’t file the Form 15 is a misdemeanor, but separately, you could get thrown entirely off the ballot,” said Sandy Theis, spokeswoman for the Vote Yes on Issue 5 Committee. The group had filed a public records request asking to see the form.
The group asked Brunner “to throw them off the ballot, and if you can’t do that, then at least throw out the signatures collected by this group,” Theis said.
Brunner instead appointed a hearing officer who will hear from both sides before making a recommendation to Brunner.
The anti-payday lending crowd has given up on trying to persuade Ohio voters.
Update: Here’s the Dayton Daily News story
