With GOP Majority - Payday Loan Lobbyists Declare Open Season

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JS Online Excerpt:
Madison — With Republicans about to take control of the Legislature and governor's office, payday loan stores and auto title lenders are looking to roll back limits recently placed on short-term loans.

Yeah sure. Most folks that I've talked to said the payday loan reform wasn't tough enough.

But earlier in the year when payday loan reform was making its way through the state legislature, all eyes and ears were on assembly speaker Mike Sheridan's media-sensationalized dates with a payday lobbyist. Back then, the state republicans who were responsible for much of the payday regulatory dilution and the demise of the interest rate cap barely received an honorable mention about their unscrupulous influence from the local media.

JS Online Excerpt:
Erin Krueger, a lobbyist for the lenders, said they hope to eliminate "anti-business and anti-consumer choice" provisions in the new law. She did not detail the specific changes they want to make. "Everything's on the table in terms of what we're going to discuss," she said.

LADY...PLEASE! Don't put everything on the table! You're dealing with a republican majority now. Oh, thank God you added "in terms of what we're going to discuss." Whew...that was close.

But the joke is over. On the payday loan legislation alone, Sheridan and other state democrats were demogogued right out of their jobs by the deliberate sloppy information and political hit-job carried out by our local media. The damage is done. Rock County voters bought the local media narrative whether they realize it or not, and instead chose candidates who are even more willing to put the lobbyists welcome sign on their office doors. Might as well get used to it.

With republicans in the majority, it's a smorgasbord for lobbyists, they know it - and the payday loan industry is among the first to declare - it's "Open Season!"