Consumers Laud AG's Rejection of Payday Petitions; Offer Lenders Help Drafting Accurate Language
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Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, praised Attorney General Nancy Rogers for rejecting today the payday loan industry's proposed referendum language.
Ohio's top lawyer sided with consumer advocates who said the industry intentionally tried to mislead voters about recently enacted legislation that cracks down on abusive lending practices.
Rogers cited several reasons for her decision, including the summary's failure to include what she termed the new law's "most fundamental change,'' a 28 percent cap on the annual rate that payday lenders can charge customers. Under the old law, a 391 percent annual interest rate was permitted.
"Attorney General Rogers made the correct and courageous decision to reject the payday loan industry's latest deceptive tactics. This issue is too important to allow voters to be misled,'' Faith said.
Rogers' decision came after Faith and a bi-partisan team of legislators asked her to reject the industry's petition summary. Participating legislators include Rep. Chris Widener, a Springfield Republican who sponsored the reform legislation; and Reps. Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican, and Bob Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat, who jointly sponsored a separate bill to reform the industry.
Moments after Rogers' announced her ruling, COHHIO delivered a letter to industry lawyer David Paragas that offered to help draft replacement language that accurately explains the content of the lending reform law.
"Although we are on opposite sides on this proposed ballot issue, I know we can agree on one thing: For a democracy to properly function, its citizens must have access to the truth,'' Faith said in the letter.
Ohio's top lawyer sided with consumer advocates who said the industry intentionally tried to mislead voters about recently enacted legislation that cracks down on abusive lending practices.
Rogers cited several reasons for her decision, including the summary's failure to include what she termed the new law's "most fundamental change,'' a 28 percent cap on the annual rate that payday lenders can charge customers. Under the old law, a 391 percent annual interest rate was permitted.
"Attorney General Rogers made the correct and courageous decision to reject the payday loan industry's latest deceptive tactics. This issue is too important to allow voters to be misled,'' Faith said.
Rogers' decision came after Faith and a bi-partisan team of legislators asked her to reject the industry's petition summary. Participating legislators include Rep. Chris Widener, a Springfield Republican who sponsored the reform legislation; and Reps. Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican, and Bob Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat, who jointly sponsored a separate bill to reform the industry.
Moments after Rogers' announced her ruling, COHHIO delivered a letter to industry lawyer David Paragas that offered to help draft replacement language that accurately explains the content of the lending reform law.
"Although we are on opposite sides on this proposed ballot issue, I know we can agree on one thing: For a democracy to properly function, its citizens must have access to the truth,'' Faith said in the letter.
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Today, the AG agreed. She rejected the language and she cited a litany of reasons that was very similar to those cited by the anti-payday crowd.
That tells me that the anti-payday crowd made logical, reasonable, legally sound arguments.
But Kim Norris, spokesbabe for the pro-payday fellas (known as the Reject House Bill 545 Committee,) reached a different conclusion.
Ms. Norris, according to the Columbus Dispatch, rejected the anti-payday advocates offer to help re-write the language and make sure it was fair and balanced.
Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and a leader in pushing for the new law, offered his services to the Reject Committee in drafting new language.
"I know we can agree on one thing: For a democracy to properly function, its citizens must have access to the truth,'' Faith said in the letter to committee attorney David Paragas.
The offer was rejected. "Mr. Faith is not licensed to practice law in the state and he clearly doesn't understand the bill," Norris said.
That is too funny. I don't know whether Mr. Faith is licensed to practice -- or is even a lawyer. But he clearly is on the same page as the Ohio Attorney General.
Didn't Kim Norris used to work for the attorney general's office? If so, she seems to have forgotten what she learned there.