Vox

Musings, rants, rambling, general nonsense

Operation Sunset

Posted on | June 12, 2010 | No Comments

In 2008, the voters of Arizona had the chance to decide whether to renew the contract allowing payday lenders to continue their “business” – or whether to allow that contract to expire. Despite an incredibly well-funded and misleading “Vote Yes” ad campaign by the loan industry, the voters overwhelmingly rejected the vultures. I supported the Vote No on 200 viewpoint, as I wrote at the time, and was pleased the measure failed.

In the interim, attempts have been made to override that vote, giving the payday loan industry a back door renewal of their contract (most recently by Sen Russell Pearce)

I have wondered what the eventual outcome would be, and since the “deadline” is July 1st, 2010, I decided to investigate. The East Valley Tribune spells it out, and it ain’t pretty:

Every one of the East Valley’s 100-plus payday loan stores will lose its authority to operate* on June 30 – but the shops and their flashy neon signs may be here to stay.
. . .
“They’ve spent quite a bit on attorneys trying to figure out if there is some sort of wriggle room,” Smith said. “I seriously doubt that there will be a mass exodus.”

Never thought I’d be directing folks to a Terry Goddard project, but he is at the helm now, and seeing these ‘businesses’ close is actually a cause I can support. Operation Sunset and the battle to remove Payday Lenders from the state of Arizona.

*To be clear, they don’t “lose their authority to operate”, just their ability to issue payday loans at exorbitant rates. They claimed at the time that the business model would be unsustainable at the new rate, which caps at 36%, so I think the assumption was made that a “No” vote would send them packing.



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Category: AZ, peeves, politics, work

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