Pay Day Lenders, Unemployment

The pay day lenders have turned in their petition, and now they wait for the reply. They are trying to get the heavy restrictions recently placed on them by the Ohio Legislature put onto the ballot. The theory is enough of their customers will be so outraged at the new limitations the bill will be overturned.

A good theory, and democracy in action. But is it a wise move?

That's where the unemployment comes in. Ohio has more people unemployed than at any other point in the last 16 years. A lot of these people, I'm willing to bet, are either taking out cash advance loans or already have. My question is, how are they going to be able to pay these back while their jobs keep vanishing?

The main issue behind wanting to regulate the industry is the fees. If you do the math, the annual interest rates are absurdly high. The Federal Trade Commission gives this example, with a number of 391%. (And I thought Mastercard was bad...). The Ohio Legislature figures that's more or less loansharking, and needs to be stopped by capping the rate at 28%.

But...I've known people who did these. And they aren't going to make their car payments, or pay for medication, or buy milk for the kids any other way. It's an evil, but maybe it's the lesser of two evils? Or is the problem the fact people don't get just one loan; they get a series of loans, in order to pay off their first one (or to cover bills left unpaid because they made good on the first loan).

Maybe if the loans aren't as readily available (because most of the payday lenders have shut down, as the industry claims will happen) we'll be forced to address the fact that millions upon millions of Americans aren't able to pay their bills each month.

Power Outages and Such

So the plan was the take Monday and finish up the posts for the week...but thanks to the windstorms and subsequent power outages, that did not happen.

My apologies for the week of silence...I hope not one was put out very much.

In other news, I've picked up a second job. I went into greater detail on my coffee blog, "In Search of the Right Blend" over here, but suffice it to say a couple-nights-a-week job has started to spiral into a 1/2 to 3/4 time gig. This means much less time to dedicate to blogging.

I'm scaling back operations to posting only twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Otherwise, there shouldn't be any changes (except for maybe improved quality with fewer posts to put out each week...I'll let you judge that).

Thanks for the eyeballs, folks, and I hope you don't find the time wasted!

Water Rights Ammendment

Remember when I said I had no idea what Ohio Issue 3 was all about, about water rights?

Well, I found out. Apparantly, it's not clearly spelled out that Ohioans have reasonable access rights to ground water on their property, as well as lakes and running water. Issue 3 is about changing that, and creating water rights for property owners.

This apparantly stemmed out of the Great Lakes Basin Compact. Evidently there were concerns that Ohio was sorta screwing it's own property holders by making agreements with other states before our own state was settled.

Makes sense to me.

Candidates in My District: Congress

Thanks to the recent Ohio court decision on the Libertarian Party, we now have three candidates on the ballot for Congress. I can't remember seeing three candidates for anything but a judge...and I feel good about seeing it now. Choices, options, dialogue. That's what democracy is all about...the more hats in the ring, the better (up to a point, I suppose...but that point is so far down the road I'm not thinking about it yet).

I hope this new level of choice isn't a flash in the pan.

Anyhow, the three people who want to go to Washington to represent us in the 12th Ohio district are:

• David Robinson (D)
• Pat Tiberi (R)
• Steven R. Linnabary (L)

Congress is an important job, since taxes originate from it. It's also where a lot of the actual business of government happens...if you look in the Constitution and read between the lines a little bit, the Senate is more of a vetting process to put the breaks on a boistorous lower house (and BOY have we seen that in the past two years!).

Pat Tiberi is the incumbant this year, has been since 2001. We'll use these years in office to evaluate him, via the voting record listing over at Project Vote Smart. I was actually quite surprized to see there wasn't much in the voting record I disagreed with. Yes, he leans right...but he IS a Republican, and that's to be expected. Three things that jumped out at me as being good: He's been consistently against oil exploration in the US; for alternative energy incentives (as long as they don't come with a stick against big business); and voted against this most recent farm bill. A three things I didn't like so much? A series of pro-life votes; against foreign aid to fight AIDS, malaria, and TB; has voted against every measure so far to alleviate home owner angst.

David Robinson is the Democratic challenger. He's a well-educated man from the Columbus area, with a seminary MA and a PhD in theology and philosophy. His most recent claim to fame, and the reason he got interested in politics, is his work with the Climate Project with Al Gore. I find it facinating a man with a seminary degree represents the Democratic Party...it's not the typical MO for the day and age. No prior government experience, just a passion to get involved and help bring a breath of fresh air to Congress.

I'd love to tell you more about the Libertarian candidate, Steve Linnabary. However, I can't seem to find anything about him. He's a Columbus area native who went to college in Lexington, KY. The website from his Clerk of Courts run (I'm not sure when that was) is up, and is far more functioning than the site for his current Congressional run (which I had to find in a roundabout fashion). I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of someone representing me who can't get any of his links to work. I appreciate the "I'm not a part of this madness" sentiment, but this doesn't excuse one from the basics of campaigning...namely making it easy for the voters to access information about you.

As for my personal choice? I'm not sure yet. I was pleasantly surprized by Tiberi's voting record...even though he's been along for the entire Bush ride. One could argue the fact he survived the GOP slaughter of '06 means something as well. Though...if I'm serious about change...Robinson certainly represents that. I'll need to deliberate longer.

Issues This Fall (List)

Just as important as the candidates we'll be electing this year are the issues we'll be deciding by ballot. Things like the gay marriage ban--that abortion of human rights--are decided by a ballot issue during a general election.

How does an issue get on the ballet? It's technical, and I'll look into it for another post soon. But there's two main reasons you'll have an issue on the ballot: A) The state legislature decides it doesn't have the authority (or it lacks the political cojones) to decide on an issue and they send it to the voters, or B) the voters decide they want to force the legislature down a particular path, and get their issue on the ballot.

In short, it's our democracy at the base level: By the people, for the people. Forever and ever, amen. So do us all a favor and pay attention to these issues...they DO affect your life.

We have some interesting issues up for decision this year. Here's an overview for my area, and you can see the full list here.

Ohio Issues:

• Issue 1: To provide for earlier filing deadlines for statewide ballot issues. An ammendment to the state Constitution to make people file their paperwork earlier when they want to file a state wide ballot issue. Yes = the Constitution is changed, No = No change.


• Issue 2: To authorize the State to issue bonds to continue the Clean Ohio program for environmental revitalization and conservation. Another Constitutional ammendment that will let the state raise money to continue the Clean Ohio program. Yes = Allow Bonds, No = No Bonds.


• Issue 3: To amend the Constitution to protect rights in ground water, lakes, and other watercourses. I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure what this is all about, exactly...but with how dry other parts of the country are getting, I'm not surprized to see a water issue. Look for a post on this once I read up on it.

Westerville Issues:

• Issue 54: Proposed Municipal Income Tax Ordinance. General Municipal operations and services, street maintenance, capital improvements and related costs. A tax of 3/4 (.75) of 1% of earnings and income subject to the municipal income tax, effective January 1, 2009.


• Issue 55A: Particular location -- Weekday Sales (10am to Midnight). Vino Meza LLC dba MEZA, 48 N State Street Westerville, OH 43081


• Issue 55B: Particular location -- Sunday Sales (1pm to midnight). Same location.


• Issue 56B: Particular location -- Sunday Sales (1pm to midnight). Enken Inc dba Sunbury Rd Duchess 900 S Sunbury Rd Westerville, OH 43081.

There's also a buncha bonds and liquor options for Columbus. City charter changes for various suburbs, like Whitehall's charter has quite a bit of rewriting up for vote. Go check it out...it's kinda neat to see what town is doing what.

This isn't the final list, because I don't see the pay day loan issue on there yet. September 30th is the magic date, according to the BOE. After that date we should have access to full sample ballots.

Candidates This Fall

As you may know, I'm a big fan of Smart Voter.org. It's the League of Women Voters who organize volunteers in several states to contact Boards of Election and compile sample ballots and candidate info in simple, easy to read formats. Go check it out.

It's still early in the season for the full, official sample ballots. Those should be ready after 9/30/08 Issues are still being fought about in court, petitions still being signed, etc etc. But most of the national and state contests are listed, and here's the ones for the 12th Congressional/3rd State Senate/20th State Rep district in Ohio.

If you want the full Franklin County, Ohio list of national and state contests, go here.

Congress:

• Pat Tiberi (R)
• David Robinson (D)

State Representative:

• Nancy Garland (D)
• Jim McGregor (R)

Ohio Supreme Court:

6 Year Term Starting 1/1/09

• Joseph D. Russo (D)
• Maureen O'Connor (R)

6 Year Term Starting 1/2/09

• Evelyn L. Stratton (R)
• Peter M. Sikora (D)

Ohio Court of Appeals:

6 Year Term Starting 2/9/09

• David Goodman (R)
• John A. Connor (D)

6 Year Term Starting 7/1/09

• Richard D. Brown (D)
• Lisa L. Sadler (R)

Note, there are no US or State Senators being elected in this district in 2008. Gotta love those longer terms.

I couldn't find a damn thing about Richard D. Brown or Lisa L. Sadler, except Lisa L Sadler's entry in the Yellow Book. I also want to point out the majority of hits on John Connor were about his suspension and various misconducts...but you can look at the search results here.

Check it out, kids. Have fun.