State Legislature 2013 session

[eridani]

66. This failed, but the Money Tree assholes are back with a new House bill HV 2040

MoneyTree Says Money Talks: Calling in Favors & Breaking Olympia

Outrageous. Simply. Outrageous.

We already knew that predatory Lenders like MoneyTree were trying to buy our lawmakers with their incredible campaign contributions. Last year alone, MoneyTree and its leadership spent nearly $200,000 on campaign contributions.

But what is truly outrageous is that they are on the cusp of cashing in on those contributions by re-writing the legislative process when they didn't get their way.

Just a few short weeks ago, largely credited to your overwhelming opposition, the House refused to pass MoneyTree’s predatory lending/installment bill, SB 5312, out of committee. It was considered dead, and we were encouraged by the overwhelming community opposition to MoneyTree’s attempt to skirt the payday lending law.

So what does MoneyTree do? They just introduce a new bill, HB 2040, after the cut-off date to force the legislature’s hand on a vote. HB 2040 is just a “shell” of a bill. It has no language in the bill – it contains no information and we don’t know what they will put in the bill. We are deeply opposed to them introducing new legislation with just a few days before the end of session, after all of the committee and cut-off dates, with no information and without a public hearing.

Before their previous bill (SB5312) died in committee, 85 organizations representing over 1,000,000 Washingtonians spoke out against this predatory industry's attempts to operate outside existing consumer protection law.

Only two groups supported it, and you’ll probably only need two guesses to figure it out:

•MoneyTree, Inc.
•Community Financial Services Association of America (Payday Lending Industry)

This is how payday lenders work; they change the rules and rig the system to try to get their way. MoneyTree will stop at nothing to preserve the cycle of debt that keeps their doors open. Their profit is dependent on people’s economic hardship, and they’re using that profit to make sure Olympia is in their back pocket.

There are champions in Olympia right now working to stop MoneyTree’s attempt to circumvent the democratic process. Those legislators have put out an urgent call for help. We need to help them fight back payday lenders’ play to run our state legislature.