This article gives a good update on the status of legislation in Ohio.  Key passage:

It’s the Senate committee’s third hearing on the issue, with a fourth hearing on the schedule for Wednesday afternoon but no testimony scheduled.

The House bill included not only the interest cap but also a limit of four payday loans per year per customer.

Phyllis Riccadonna, who has operated America Check Exchange locally since 1997, said there are other solutions that weren’t included.

“I’ve been in this business since 1997. I opened the first payday loan shop in the entire Ohio Valley,” Riccadonna said. “The 28 percent cap would put us out of business. There is no ifs, ands or buts about it. It amounts to a charge of about a dollar per loan.”

State Treasurer Richard Cordray said in a recent interview that the current loan rates charged by the payday lenders in Ohio amount to about 391 percent annually, but Riccadonna said a better solution would be a return to tighter caps on loan amounts, not interest.

This letter in the Steubenville Herald Star gets right to the point:

The payday lending legislation approved by the House of Representatives hurts Ohio’s workers, consumers and the economy.

Let’s be clear: A 28 percent annual rate cap is a ban on payday lending. A 28 percent APR cap allows a fee of less than 8 cents a day, which is not enough to pay salaries and benefits, rent or other overhead costs.

What is at stake?

More than 6,000 jobs with benefits such as health care and retirement are on the line. What is more, a regulated short-term credit option will be ripped from the hands of Ohio consumers who will be forced to choose between less desirable and more expensive alternatives.

The hard reality is that employed, hard-working Ohioans sometimes fall short of cash between paychecks. It’s easy for people who have nothing to lose to call for a ban. Their jobs aren’t on the line and they have likely never used (or even needed) a payday advance. But let’s do the responsible thing. Let’s put in place laws that will help consumers, not hurt them by taking away choices. Ohio consumers deserve reform — not a ban.

Hundreds of employees have attended legislative hearings, and thousands have reached out to their representatives through e-mails, letters and phone calls. Nearly 30,000 customers have written letters, urging legislators not to take away a personal credit choice.

Unfortunately, the voices of employees and customers, the people that matter most, landed on deaf years in Ohio’s House of Representatives. We hope senators will listen.

Jamie Frauenberg

President of the Ohio

Association

of Financial Service Centers

So says State Rep. John Domenick in today’s Herald Star.

“The reality is, payday loans are an unfortunate necessity for many Ohioans,” Domenick said. “Many people cannot make ends meet living from paycheck to paycheck. Job losses and the failed economic policies of the Bush administration have put an increasing number of people in this situation.”

Domenick noted more than 1,600 payday lending offices operate in Ohio with about 6,000 employees. He said owners testified that a 28 percent interest cap in the bill that passed the Ohio House would drive them out of business.