At yesterday’s Aberdeen crackerbarrel, Sister Myra Remily asked our legislators about House Bill 1161, the payday lending industry’s fourth dirty trick to evade South Dakotans’ effort to cap short-term interest rates at 36%. Rep. Al Novstrup (R-3/Aberdeen) showed he’s no loan-shark dupe: he calls the payday lenders on their trickery and says “there’s a high chance” that he won’t vote for HB 1161:
Rep. Novstrup misanticipates when and where HB 1161 will come to him: it passed House State Affairs last Wednesday, was deferred in the House Friday, and is headed for Al and the House again tomorrow after the second sales-tax-for-teacher-pay debate.
But Rep. Novstrup nails exactly the problem with HB 1161: the payday lenders are trying to scoot their regulations into a new, separate chapter of state law, which would “exempt[…] themselves from whatever you’re going to vote on next fall.” Rep. Novstrup calls that “loophole to drive trucks through” “very problematic.”
Then, at 2:55, Rep. Novstrup wales on the payday lenders even harder and gives this remarkable condemnation of Amendment U, the fake 18% rate cap:
There’s some sincere people that have put a ballot issue out that says you cannot charge more than 36%. Then there’s other people that have put out an 18%. That’s put out by the industry in an attempt to confuse and defeat the other issue. So the 18% is actually what they call a decoy…. When you have a chance to vote next year, there’s an 18% and a 36%. Normally you say, “Well, I think we’ll go with an 18% interest rate.” The answer’s just the opposite from what you’d expect. The reason the 18 is a fraud is because it says no lender in South Dakota can charge more than 18% unless the person getting the loan signs an agreement to that effect. So if you want the loan you have to sign an agreement to that effect and the law doesn’t mean anything [Rep. Al Novstrup, Aberdeen crackerbarrel, 2016.02.20].
Steve! Steve! Reynold! Did you hear that? Al didn’t say he’ll vote for IM 21, but he called you guys sincere!
More importantly, Republican Representative Al Novstrup used the words decoy and fraud to describe the 18% rate cap. Al says it’s fake, I say it’s fake, and from the immediate audience response when Al explained Amendment U’s written-agreement loophole, voters appear to recognize that Amendment U is a fake.
Rep. Novstrup says Sister Myra’s position appears to be correct, but he still qualifies his opposition to the payday lenders’ tricks, saying there’s a “99% chance I’m with you” on HB 1161 (and perhaps by extension on Amendment U), but he says he still wants to hear the debate to make sure he hasn’t misunderstood the bill.
Senator David Novstrup (R-3/Aberdeen) says he declined lobbyists’ invitation to sponsor HB 1161 “because of the concerns of the ballot issues.” We can only assume those concerns are those his dad enunciated more clearly for him at the mic. David said he’s waiting to see if HB 1161 makes it out of the House to study it and decide his position.
There is one good Republican in South Dakota: its governor.
Al is not with you on the 36% cap, but he doesn’t want payday lending enshrined in the SD constitution either. Good for him to call HB 1161 what it is.
Not with us on IM 21, but with us on U and 1161? I’ll take that 2 out of 3. Al’s willingness to keep the payday lenders’ tricks out of Constitution and code means we can concentrate more of our resources on passing 21.
Cory, Rorschbach;
Please don’t misrepresent my position. It is likely that I will vote for 36% / IM 21. Please explain what I said to lead you to know that I am opposed to 36% / IM 21. Do your home work..See below.
http://legis.sd.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/Bill.aspx?Bill=1255&Session=2014
Sincere? I know Steve Hickey and he is sincere and a friend. I have read about Steve Hildebrandt and I believe he is sincere. I don’t know much about Reynold but will give him the benefit of the doubt also. Maybe we could all take a lesson from Steve and Steve and stop judging based up R versus D.
Why 99% and not a 100%? Because I believe a good legislator should keep listening and learning. When you arrive at 100%, you may not be a good listener and the learning may stop.
Al, I took your statement yesterday to mean you are strongly inclined to support IM 21. Ror disagreed. I said that if Ror happens to be right, I’d take two out of three. But hey, if you’re with us in IM 21 as well as HB 1161 and AMendment U, I’m thrilled. Thank you for that position and for clarifying it for us! Now spread the word to your colleagues, and be sure that you keep educating your neighbors here in District 3! (By the way, will you be campaigning this year in District 3? If so, for which office?)
I also accept the 99% qualification as reasonable caution. I recognize that anything is possible, and that one should rarely if ever say never. But I am 99.9% certain that no one will be able to offer a good reason to vote for HB 1161.
Actually i’m tilling the garden.
The young Mr. Novstrup is the behemoth in the Aberdeen district elections. He tilts the scale.
Watch your toes, Lar, or set your leather Jesus sandals aside and put on some real shoes. They could stand to air out a bit anyway.
There are no extreme Democrats running for public office in Aberdeen but laud Novstup and his nutball sidekicks for running out the legislature’s clock avoiding debate on ethics reform.
Mr. H better home nobody puts up flyers warning them of “The Extremist at Your Front Door.” But I know he will struggle mightily to contain himself and not scare people as he marches about the town or stands in Kessler’s parking lot with a booth. He just needs to pick the race that isn’t against Al, the young Novstrup, and takes on the younger one.
Despite lies from SDGOP the video lootery, payday loan sharks, domestic violence and homelessness are inextricably linked putting children at risk to more catastrophic consequences far more often than has happened in states that have legalized or lessened penalties for casual use of cannabis.
Video lootery, lousy wages, payday loan sharks, ecological devastation, STIs, racism, suicides, teen binge drinking, despair: these are the SDGOP years.
Lar, you may have something there. I would just bet if you did the analysis you could find a correlation between the same people who are homeless or participate in domestic violence and those who shove payday loan money into video lottery machines. You may even find a common thread of voter registration. Like our common friend Bill says, I’m just sayin…
South Dakota’s choice to use video gambling to pay big government bills is driving the quickie loan industry according to Steve Hildebrand. He called Rod Aycox, CEO of North American Title Loan Co., a crook during an interview with Argus Leader Media’s SuFuStu.
Hildebrand’s comrade in efforts to cap interest rates, Republican former lawmaker Steve Hickey, the only SDGOPer in South Dakota’s legislature with any brains whatsoever, was invited to join the discussion but had a previous engagement and was unable to be there.
Representative Tim Rounds is not seeking reelection.
http://southdakotaprogressive.blogspot.com/2016/01/tim-rounds-wont-seek-reelection.html
I assumed what your position would be, Rep. Novstrup. But you know what they say about assumptions. This one’s bad on me.
Pierre is like a big old barn, something smells and its time to do some cleaning.https://open.spotify.com/track/2VGPjiNYYX5dMVqgH4nCJ1
The Blindman
Curious what Al Novstrup has done about cleaning up the James River: anyone know?
Why does the James River need cleaning up? It’s not really much of a river now, is it?
Thanks Rep Novstrup for your support. I’d love to list you as an endorser of IM 21 – the 36% rate cap. We have quite a growing list of notable endorsers. Let me know. And please speak out boldly against this on the House floor tomorrow or Tuesday.
Barn lime does wonders for cow and pig poop. Not sure what it would do for wingnut waste. Quicklime,otoh,might do a good job keeping bugs and lobbyists away.