Oregon has just passed an anti-payday lending statute. The politics are gruesome. The legislature passed the bill to keep it off a state ballot initiative, and there’s much talk that the plan is to repeal the bill once the general election has passed. Even so, there is some very important news in the Oregon experience.
First, family economic issues work. Pollsters in Oregon said they had never seen anything like the support for interest rate caps on payday lenders. The numbers were 70-30, picking up every single demographic group they analyzed including majorities of both political parties.
Second, faith groups joined with political activists to push economic legislation to protect struggling families. The coalition between PIRG and the religious groups was very effective.
I like the citizen-initiative aspect of this reform. I’m sure people can tell me a dozen reasons why Oregon is special, but surely the success of this effort gives heart to every group thinking about whether it is worth the energy to try to make things better in their states. I also like the message it sends to the people who sit in Congress and the state legislatures: Americans care about economic justice. They understand that leaving the most aggressive lenders to write their own rules isn’t good for families and isn’t good for the country. They are ready to put a stop to the practices that are doing the most damage.
