Our state's Republican legislature never disappoints when it comes to creating more and more bad legislation.
The newest stinkeroo is House Bill 810. It has already made it out of the House Banking Committee and is headed for the Senate. Ostensibly it is an amendment to the Consumer Finance Act. What it really amounts to is a giveaway to predatory payday lenders.
It increases the maximum amount these businesses can loan; it allows them to refinance loans every 90 days, increase interest charged on loans and add new fees. What it will do is put the state's working poor on a continuous treadmill of debt.
According to responsiblelending.org, military officials within the state, the Office of the Attorney General and the N.C. Commissioner of Banks have all spoken against it. But the fact-free state GOP is moving ahead with the bill anyway.
And if you like this bill, wait until you see the one that allows credit-card companies to garnish your paycheck when you're past due. I wish I was making this stuff up, but I'm not. We need a recall!
— Jeff Israel
Canton
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Couple this with the efforts to defund public education and make it harder for people to vote and you begin to see a pretty clear pattern.
Great wealth has always worked to curtail democracy and to garner benefits for the wealthy.
Local currency anyone?
By cecilbothwell
06/08/2011
Repeal the Consumer Finance Act.
.........................
By timothypeck
06/08/2011
Have to agree with Cecil on this one. There's a pattern, it seems...
By cwaster
06/08/2011
Cecil, public education is being defunded? Isn't that a rather incorrect, inflamatory and extreme way to say that some public education funds are being cut?
By artart
06/08/2011
Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or Republican, nobody should advocate the use of payday loans under any circumstance.
By travelah
06/08/2011
Repeal the Consumer Finance Act.
Because the fastest way to utopia is to make as many people as destitute as possible, so that we may be all truly equal.
By mat catastrophe
06/09/2011
Oh, forgot to mention, I agree with travelah completely on this one.
By mat catastrophe
06/09/2011
Banking industry lobbyists are among the most powerful and best suckled in Raleigh.
And they, of course, help formulate the misleading titles and language of legislation for which they lobby, such as HB 810 Consumer Finance Act Amendments, sounding superficially but erroneously as if it is pro-consumer, as if state government is taking care of consumers’ finances.
Even more deceitful is the language of HB 854 Women’s Right to Know Act, sounding superficially but erroneously as if it is pro-woman and state government is taking care of women’s rights, requiring “voluntary and informed consent of a woman†as if someone might be performing abortions on women against their will, to which they did not consent or even know about.
It pays to pay attention and read the whole bill, and MtnX forums do us all a great service when they call our attention to the real intentions of such proposed legislation. Thanks to letter writers Jeff Israel and Anna Pfaff for doing so this week.
Up here in WNC it is so easy to forget that Raleigh even exists—until such untoward legislation pops up and smacks us in the face. We lost our greatest representative in Former Speaker Liston Ramsey who for four decades kept us informed, listened to us, and took decisive action based on what he heard from us.
By Betty Cloer Wallace
06/09/2011
Because the fastest way to utopia is to make as many people as destitute as possible, so that we may be all truly equal.
As long as you recognize that libertarian 'utopia' is a code word for corporate tyranny and class privilege.
By bill smith
06/09/2011
Holy cow! I have to agree with Travelah on this one too.
By cwaster
06/10/2011