by Marc Kovac
Capital Bureau chief
Columbus -- With less than two weeks before the general election, the Secretary of State's Office has certified the last of five ballot issues, a hotly debated payday lending referendum seeking to overturn portions of a new law OK'd by lawmakers earlier this year.
Kevin Kidder, a spokesman for Jennifer Brunner, said the official certification letter was sent Oct. 24, with a total of 279,174 signatures deemed valid. Ohioans for Financial Freedom, the group behind Issue 5, needed 241,366 verifiable signatures to place the referendum before voters.
The Secretary of State's announcement came more than three weeks after the petitioners, also known as the Committee to Reject House Bill 545, turned in an additional 200,000-plus signatures after an earlier submission of about 400,000 proved insufficient.
House Bill 545 was signed by the governor in June. Among other provisions, it caps the interest rates charged on payday loans at 28 percent (compared to nearly 400 percent now) and prohibits lenders from adding additional fees, interest or costs.
Proponents of the new law believe changes are needed to stop the proliferation of payday loan storefronts and protect residents who get trapped in borrowing cycles -- taking out one two-week payday loan after another and getting strapped with high fees and annual percentage rates.
Opponents have said the bill will devastate the payday loan industry, likely closing locations and costing 6,000-plus Ohioans their jobs. They also have questioned where people strapped for cash and facing emergencies would go for smaller, short-term loans.
The ballot issue is in the form of a referendum. Proponents of the legislation regulating payday lending activities would have to vote "yes" to retain the law as-is. Opponents of the law would have to vote "no" to overturn portions of the new law, including those related to the interest rate lenders are allowed to charge.
Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.