26th March
As the General Assembly reports to the citizens and voters on the accomplishments of the 2008 session, the issue of payday lending will be high on the agenda of the electorate as well as local government bodies who had expressed their almost unanimous support for ending usurious payday lending in Virginia and capping payday loans at 36 percent APR.
Many legislators will claim success in putting an end to the disreputable practice of payday lending. Some legislators will actually believe they have instituted reforms to protect citizens against predatory lending. These legislators have been misled and bamboozled by the efforts of the payday lenders, their lobbyists, and the leaders in the General Assembly who have been the beneficiaries of the largesse of the payday lenders.
Other legislators will know that there have been no real reforms but only sham modifications that make the process even less transparent and add new fees and loopholes to prey upon the working poor. Those legislators who have supported payday lending maintain that government should not interfere with the free market and their advice to the borrower is caveat emptor. These legislators are bamboozling their fellow members in the same way that payday lenders bamboozle the borrowers.
The payday lenders and their lobbyists can celebrate another session of successfully manipulating the legislators at the expense of the citizens. And the payday lenders and lobbyists will be laughing all the way to the bank.
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