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AZ 2008: Pay Day Loan

Arizona legislators file a 2008 initiative to ban payday lending in Arizona. A few details.

Oregon: Another Initiative "Pays" Off

SO, Our Oregon has been moving an initiative that would rein in the runaway interest rates that payday loan companies foist on borrowers. It was polling like gangbusters. This thing was like, soooo popular! And then something interesting happened. The Oregon legislature convened a special session yesterday to pass legislation nearly identical to the initiative. Not only that, but the sponsor of the bill was the same woman who just last year killed legislation that would have accomplished the same ends. Wha happened?

By itself, this story would point to the power of an initiative to goose legislatures into action on a previously ignored (or opposed) issue that resonates with the people. But in 2006, the phenomenon is happening all over the map. In Michigan last month, the Republican legislature saw that they'd be sharing the ballot with a popular minimum wage initiative. Their track record on helping poor people being roughly equivalent to Republicans everywhere, they realized that this wasn't the kind of sharing they were going to benefit from. So they grabbed a languishing Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage and rammed it through the Michigan Senate and House. Democratic Governor Granholm happily signed it into law. The initiative campaign then closed its doors.

A few weeks after that, the Arkansas legislature did the same thing, except these were Democrats who may have been embarrassed that an initiative was making them look bad. After all, a Democratic legislature that hasn't raised the minimum wage is a pitiful thing indeed. So they passed a raise and the initiative campaign ceased its activities.

Then Massachusetts did it with universal health care. And Mitt Romney signed it (albeit a watered-down version), if you can believe it.

What to make of all this?