Payday lenders in Ohio are facing a bleak future.  Tax paying businesses shuttered, leases broken, employees laid off.  It’s scary how quickly the government can take one’s livelyhood away.

I was at the grocery store last night and took a spin down the bottled water aisle.  I counted over ten different brands of water. TEN! That was just for still water, not fizzy fancy mineral water or ultra pure distilled or raspberry flavored “performance” water…just plain old water that you can get for pennies out of the tap.  Why does my grocery store carry ten different brands of plain old water?  Because consumers like choices, they might like the image that goes with drinking a fancy French fizzy water, they might choose bottled water over a soda or their tap water might taste like bog water (as mine does) and prefer drinking water that has been purified elsewhere.  In the end, no one forces consumers to buy bottled water, but if they want it the option is there.

That’s what Ohioans for Financial Freedom are fighting for.  You don’t have to take out a payday loan if you don’t want to.  There are alternatives, someone with an unexpected expense can take a cash advance on their credit card, ask their employer for an advance on their payday, ask their family for help, they could pawn a valuable item, some credit unions offer loans or they could just go ahead and pay overdraft or late fees.  These are all perfectly good options, as is taking out a payday loan and that option should remain available to those that want it.

Ohio Grocers Association Supports Ohioans For Financial Freedom To Keep Ohio Jobs and Consumer Choices

COLUMBUS, OH – The Ohio Grocers Association today gave its endorsement for the efforts of Ohioans For Financial Freedom to repeal section (3) of H.B. 545 saying the legislation goes too far and will hurt Ohio grocers and consumers.

“The national credit and foreclosure crisis has had a detrimental impact on our already struggling economy. While we applaud the Ohio Legislature’s intention to curb that impact, by passing H.B. 545, we do not feel that eliminating funding sources for consumers is the way to solve the problem,” said Tom Jackson, President/CEO of Ohio Grocers Association. Jackson stated that his association members’ customers who have responsibly utilized the services of the payday lending industry may have that financial option eliminated in a future financial pinch. “If payday lending businesses cease to exist in Ohio, which is likely if H.B. 545 is enacted, OGA’s members could be hurt through an increased number of bounced checks, fraudulent checks and even theft. We have many grocers who operate in underserved areas of the state, areas that could experience an even greater impact by the loss of additional lending choices, choices that should be made by each consumer, not by the government, said Jackson.”

 The Ohio Grocers Association believes that the regulated, reliable short-term funding source for many Ohioans should remain intact as to prevent additional hardships on Ohio’s small businesses that they clearly don’t need –especially with the current economic challenges. The potential loss of 6,000 payday lending jobs and their loans could ultimately result in lost business for everyone in the community.

Founded in 1899, the Ohio Grocers Association is located in Columbus, Ohio. The Ohio Grocers Association is committed to the well being and progress of the Ohio food industry and its members. Our purpose is to represent the membership through legislative and regulatory efforts with an effective government relations program, to be the resource for industry education and communications, to work with industry partners and alliances to best serve the membership, and to operate as a professional income generating business dedicating its resources to the membership.

You know what the great thing is about a democracy?  Each and every person gets to have their say, make up their own mind and choose.  Sure, Alexis de Tocqueville and Federalist Paper #10 warned about tyranny of the majority, but with the checks and balances that are in effect in this great country and in the wonderful state of Ohio, the majority vote on payday lending will be significantly more legitimate than the authoritarian move the Ohio legislature made in passing HB 545. 

But that’s not even the best part, in this country we have a strong live and let live ethic.  What might not be good for the goose is great for the gander.  In today’s Delphos Herald, Fourth District Representative Matt Huffman describes why he voted for financial choice, even though he doesn’t think payday loans are always the best idea:

“I voted against it because I think, in some instances, it’s a product people want to have available. I don’t see a lot of difference between these loans and what happens with credit cards where people get a $5,000 line of credit and pretty soon, they’re maxed out and at 19 percent, can never pay it back. Let’s be clear: this is a bad option but it may, at times, be folks’ only option. If they need to make a child support payment or they have a medical bill or some doctor says you have to have $150 up front before he’ll see you. There are different cases where this is appropriate and most people pay it back on payday.”

Allow the voters to educate themselves, form their own opinion and vote on the matter.  Give democracy a chance!

Committee Calls on Bill Faith To Retract False Statement

 

Columbus― The Committee of Ohioans For Financial Freedom today demanded Bill Faith immediately retract completely false allegations he made about circulators allegedly paying two individuals $1.00 to sign a petition, or face serious legal actions.

 

“The Committee has investigated this allegation of two homeless individuals allegedly being paid $1.00 for their signatures and found it to be completely false, and so we have asked Bill Faith to immediately retract this false allegation, and any references to it on his website or any other website maintained by his organizations,” said Ohioans For Financial Freedom’s Kim Norris.

 

In a letter to Bill Faith from William Todd, representing the Committee, Todd says, “The Committee has diligently investigated this allegation and has determined that it is completely and utterly false and without any foundation in fact.  As you are acutely aware, the Committee did not obtain the Attorney General’s certification of its summary of the law to be referred until late in the day on July 10, 2008.  Consequently, allowing time for the printing of the petition forms, circulation of the Committee’s referendum petition did not begin until July 12, 2008.  It was, therefore, impossible for either Mr. Schirmer or Ms. Smithers to have signed the Committee’s referendum petition in June, let alone to have been paid for doing so.”

The letter points out that the Committee was required to collect at least 1,000 signatures for each of its three preliminary petitions submitted to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General for their certifications, all of which were submitted to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General on June 9, 25, and 27, 2008.  The Committee reviewed the signatures collected for these preliminary petition efforts, and discovered that no signatures from Butler County were collected for any of these three preliminary petitions. This is consistent with the Secretary of State’s certifications for the Committee’s three preliminary petitions, all of which indicate that no signatures were submitted from Butler County for any of the preliminary petitions.  So, neither Mr. Schirmer nor Ms. Smithers signed any of the Committee’s preliminary referendum petitions.

Also, the Committee has reviewed all of the part-petitions and signatures collected thus far from Butler County and neither Mr. Schirmer’s nor Ms. Smithers’ signature appears on any of the Committee’s part-petitions, at least through August 12, 2008, the date this allegation was made.

Ohioans For Financial Freedom is currently circulating petitions in Ohio with summary language approved by the Attorney General. It:

• Repeals section (3) of H.B. 545 offering consumers more lending options
• Allows for short-terms loans to be made under H.B. 545

Repealing Section 3 of H.B. 545 means protecting 6,000 good-paying jobs with benefits, protecting Ohioans’ financial freedom and protecting consumers’ rights to privacy about their personal financial choices.

So many employees of the payday lending industry in Ohio fought hard for their jobs and for their customers.  Everyone of you has more sense and smarts than the legislators who voted to kill the industry in the state.    This letter in the Youngstown Vindicator is typical of the many letters to the editors, emails to legislators and phone calls from employees over the last few weeks.

Ohio law kills payday loans

EDITOR:

Ohio House Bill 545 capping payday lending rates at 28 APR will close all payday lenders and put 6,000 Ohioans out of work. It will also leave hard working people no place to turn for a short-term loan. I am sure, if the members of the House and Senate spoke with our customers, their constituents, and actually listened to the masses, they would have a better understanding of how payday lenders can help our communities.

I am the Consumer Service Supervisor of Cashland Financial Services in Hubbard. Our customers come to Cashland for help for those unexpected expenses that hard working people can’t seem to get away from, i.e. car repairs, medical bills, and high utility bills or gas needed for driving back and forth to work. These are people with families and home mortgages who are struggling in the current economy and living from pay to pay.

Others use our services to counteract overdraft fees charged by their banks. They would rather pay Cashland $15 per $100 borrowed than pay a bank $37 or more for a bounced check.

People borrow from payday lenders like Cashland because, for many of them, there is nowhere else they can go to get the short-term loan they need. They come here because we are courteous and respectful and our services are private. We help ease their burdens; we don’t create them.

H.B. 545 (which has now been passed by the House and Senate) will not only close down payday lenders and put 6000 people out of work, it will close down the only means most hard working people, like myself, have for dealing with the unexpected expenses they incur.

KIMBERLY MANSELL

Hubbard

See full press release

CFSA Press Release:

Consumers Denied Choice, Jobs Threatened as Ohio Senate Votes to Ban Payday Lending

Legislators Play Politics, Ignore Tens of Thousands of Ohioans 

Washington, D.C. – Ignoring the pleas of tens of thousands of customers and employees, Ohio Legislators chose instead to vote today to ban payday lending in Ohio, said the Community Financial Services Association of America.

Expressing outrage over today’s Senate vote, D. Lynn DeVault, CFSA president, said “There was absolutely no public clamor for this legislation. In fact, tens of thousands of payday lending employees and customers were ignored by legislators, who listened only to the editorial writers and elitist consumer groups.”

HB 545, which passed the House two weeks ago, places a 28% annual percentage rate cap on payday loans, reducing the allowable fees to less than 10 cents per day.  

“Operating under HB 545 is not economically feasible,” said DeVault. “Our member companies say they expect stores to close and jobs to be lost.”

DeVault said the Senate has asked lending companies to create a new business model that would allow them to continue making small-denomination, short-term loans available in Ohio. “Companies are doing their due diligence to see what options may be available under current law,” said DeVault, “But we are not hopeful. If companies are forced to operate under HB 545, they cannot. 

“Ohio’s Legislators do not understand the impact of what they have done,” says DeVault. “Our industry worked with lawmakers in good faith to forge a compromise that would protect consumers and preserve their access to credit.  We now appeal to Governor Strickland to do anything he can to lessen the human impact of this over-zealous action.”  

 Independent research has shown that without the option of payday lending, consumers bounced more checks, filed for more bankruptcies, did not pay bills and even choose such dangerous options such as forgoing prescription medications. 

A recent Zogby survey found 84% of likely voters in Ohio believe citizens should be free to make their own decisions about what kind of credit they can use, and 70% said the government should not be in the business of telling adults they cannot get a payday loan.

“Unfortunately, legislators did not listen to consumers surveyed in the poll, nor to employees begging for their jobs or customers asking where they would turn without payday loans,” said DeVault.   

###

The article quotes CFSA president D. Lynn DeVault, “Operating under H.B. 545 is not economically feasible.  Our member companies say they expect stores to close and jobs to be lost.”

   Finance and Financial Institutions, 9:30 AM, Finance Hearing Room
   Chair: Carey

Sub HB 545 Widener, 4th Hearing, No Testimony**(***)

Short term lending – regulation

It’s ironic that the same committee is meeting tomorrow morning to discuss the JOBS package.  If they were really concerned about jobs, they wouldn’t be voting to put 6,000 people out of work.