Rep. Gary Elkins’ (R) Payday Loan Business Faces Criminal Prosecutions

[TexasTowelie]

State Rep. Gary Elkins (R-Houston)

State Rep. Gary Elkins (R-Houston) has a certain attachment to Texas’ payday loan business. After all, he helped pioneer the current model, in which payday lenders operate as “credit service organizations” and can avoid Texas’ laws against usury. Elkins owns a chain of payday stores across the state and has fought strenuously at the Legislature and in court to prevent any new regulation of the industry.

“{I’m} not ashamed of what I do,” he once told the Texas House while trying to kill off a package of modest reforms sponsored by former Republican state Rep. Vicki Truitt. (Ironically, Truitt is now a lobbyist for ACE Cash America, a payday firm that was just levied a $10 million fine for illegally coercing borrowers into taking on more debt. But that’s another story.)

And now Elkins is fighting his latest adversary: the cities of Dallas and San Antonio. If there’s a threat to payday and title lenders in Texas, it’s the growing number of cities—18 at last count—regulating the stores. Dallas was the first, passing two ordinances in 2011, requiring lending storefronts to register and abide by zoning rules, and setting limits on the size of loans and the number of times a borrower can roll a loan over.

Until recently, the cities have mostly taken a light approach to enforcing the ordinances, issuing warnings instead of criminal penalties and relying on consumer complaints. “The intent was to go out and say, ‘All right, this is what we’re seeing, this is what we’re finding, this is what you need to be doing,’” Dallas City Councilman Jerry Allen said.

More at http://www.texasobserver.org/rep-gary-elkins-facing-criminal-prosecutions-payday-loan-biz/ .

[NaturalHigh]

1. "Do Not Rob the Poor Because They are Poor"...Proverbs 22:22

Payday lenders rob the poor, IMO. Rich people don't pay triple-digit interest when they are in a bind.

[mbperrin]

2. Payday lenders are pure scum.

Military personnel can be court-martialed for going into one.

Ted Bundy wasn't ashamed of what he did, either, but that does not guarantee virtue.

Better stop before I break some law.