Vote yes on Issue 5

Among the annual barrage of political advertising this year, most of us have seen ads urging failure of state Issue 5. Some of these ads depict vacant, run down factories while claiming Issue 5 would result in the loss of 6,000 Ohio jobs.

In reality, Issue 5 deals with payday lending establishments, not outsourcing of good-paying factory jobs. Issue 5 is about saving the working poor from loans charging exorbitant interest rates -- up to 391 percent -- not about identity theft.

Payday lenders gathered signatures on referendum petitions using these same arguments to force the repeal of Substitute House Bill 545, which set new limits on payday lending. Among its provisions is a cap of 28 percent on the annual percentage rate of interest.

Other provisions limit the number of loans a borrower may obtain from payday lenders each year, and provide a minimum repayment time frame. These are common sense regulations to protect consumers from entering a cycle of debt that leaves them no escape.

We have, in the past, used this space to decry the excesses of payday lenders and the trap they set for those in temporary financial distress. All too often, what seems to be a quick fix turns into a long-term disaster.

Issue 5 does not take away a good credit choice from borrowers any more than the government banning the use of DDT deprived farmers of effective pesticides. Both products -- DDT and payday loans -- produce more harm than good and must be eliminated in their present form.

Issue 5 will not eliminate good-paying jobs, as suggested by opponents. According to information from the office of Ohio secretary of state Jennifer Brunner, most of Ohio's payday lenders have already applied for new state licenses to offer other types of loans in Ohio.

Substitute House Bill 545 is a well-crafted piece of legislation which won overwhelming approval in the Ohio Senate and the state House of Representatives, including state senator Sue Morano and representative Joseph Koziura and then-representative Thomas Hettinger.

We urge readers to vote yes on Issue 5.