Editorials

The Star's recent editorial series on the payday loan industry produced a load of responses. Most of those who responded were unhappy with the newspaper's work.

Representatives of the industry who responded were furious.

Lawrence Meyers of Texas-based PDL Capital accused The Star's editorial page of outright falsehoods, calling one of the sources of the series "corrupt," and saying an Anniston resident whom we profiled "bears responsibility for poor choices."

Charles Hunter, writing for the Birmingham-based Borrow Smart Alabama, said, "The Star has spun quite a web of tales this week, pulling at heartstrings with stories of elderly and disabled people who have gotten themselves in trouble with short-term loans."

He then gave us the back-ground of people — also featured on the Borrow Smart Web site — who have benefitted from such loans.

Representatives of the nationwide payday lenders Check 'n Go and Advance America weighed in with similar criticisms.

At least one person, self-identified as having worked at a payday lending shop, wrote an online comment on our Web site that said the editorials were condescending, and that they tended to ignore the fact that people sometimes need to get money fast and that the shops along Quintard Avenue and other places were convenient.

The author of one letter to the editor, Judy Powers of Cleveland, Tenn., took us on for ignoring the high rate charged for bounced checks. She called the series "a pathetic attempt to equate a legal, state-licensed financial service with sin…"

In its totality, it was acidic criticism.

If this were simple belly-aching from the industry, it would be understandable and expected. But there is something else at play here. Namely apathy.

Locally, the City of Anniston and Mayor Chip Howell have taken steps to curb the practice, slapping a temporary moratorium on issuing business licenses to additional payday lending shops. But that's only one city in all of Calhoun County; there aren't many examples of local politicians or city councils standing up to this industry.

Why is it that Alabamians continue to tolerate an industry that will charge interest rates and fees that can reach 456 APR, while other states — such as North Carolina — cap it at 36 percent?

Because the payday loan business is big business. Every day they're in business in this state is another day of breathtaking revenue at the expense of ordinary Alabamians. The payday lenders work hard to keep it that way.

A newspaper's editorial page can only present the issue to
the public and hope that civil discourse will occur — discussions that might spark courageous political leadership and bring about desperately needed change.

Until our elected leaders, particularly those in the Legislature in Montgomery, work as hard to change these regulations as the payday loan industry works to protect them, nothing is going to happen.