Posted on 12 May 2008. Tags: bans, HB 267, job loss, John Lynch, New Hampshire, Union Leader
Sunday’s editorial in the New Hampshire Union Leader asks, “What, if anything, is the governor going to do for the 200 private-sector workers he personally will make jobless at the start of next year?”
A few excerpts:
Last week legislators essentially outlawed payday lending and title lending in New Hampshire. The industry employs roughly 200 people in the state. All of them will be out of work by Jan. 1. That’s when House Bill 267 takes effect. Gov. Lynch, who ought to know better, has said he will sign the bill.
The 200 employees in the payday and title loan industry will have to find new jobs because they are unlucky enough to work in a field the governor doesn’t approve of. The state has eliminated their jobs, and tough luck to them.
When it comes to making decisions about people’s livelihoods, Gov. Lynch has a history of picking winners and losers based on purely political calculations.
By banning payday lending, Gov. Lynch and legislators in New Hampshire will now have to answer to the 200 employees they’ve put out of work and the thousands of customers whose credit options have been yanked away.
Posted in employees, industry, media coverage, New Hampshire, positive media coverage, regulation, states, Union Leader
Posted on 21 April 2008. Tags: Andrew Cline, National Review, New Hampshire, Union Leader
In New Hampshire’s 2006 election, Democrats were handed control of all branches of state government–for the first time since 1874.
Andrew Cline, editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader, writes about the consequenses of Democratic control in a column for National Review.
Now they are paying the price — literally. The orgy of taxing, spending, and regulating in which Democrats have indulged is threatening New Hampshire’s status as the New England state most hospitable to business and individual liberty.
Specifically about legislation to ban payday lending in New Hampshire:
Democratic legislators’ attempts to kill another industry were more successful: They passed a bill that will effectively kick payday lenders out of the state next year. The payday-lending industry had boomed in New Hampshire in the past few years, and not a single complaint had been lodged with the banking commission against any payday lender. Nonetheless, Concord decided it had to “protect” the citizenry, and placed a 36 percent cap on the interest rates charged on short-term loans. When that cap takes effect, a payday lender will be able to charge no more than $1.38 on a typical two-week loan of $100, instead of the $20 now charged. Some lenders have said they will continue to operate until the law goes into effect. After that, with their profits legislated away, they will leave the state.
Posted in industry, media coverage, National Review, New Hampshire, positive media coverage, regulation, states
