Shantel Krebs is on the radio right now—oops! she’s back in the office, so here’s today’s big petition news: the real 36% rate cap petition is in!
36% rate cap petition sponsor Steve Hildebrand says South Dakotans for Responsible Lending just submitted 20,081 signatures to put to a vote his group’s proposal to cap payday loans and car title loans at 36%.
Hildebrand offers this statement on today’s filing:
On behalf of low income people across South Dakota, those who have ever felt financially vulnerable, the thousands of seniors on fixed incomes and all who have crossed the threshold of a payday lender or car title company, Reynold Nesiba, Steve Hickey and I, filed petitions with more than 20,000 signatures of registered voters in South Dakota who believe as we do, that payday lenders should no longer take advantage of one more person in our state.
Our proposed law will cap interest rates for payday lenders and car title companies at 36% – effectively changing this predatory industry that has caught too many South Dakotans in a cycle of deep debt.
Payday lenders in South Dakota charge an average interest rate of 574%. Car title companies charge and average interest rate of 350%. And with most every lender living outside of South Dakota, the millions they make charging low-income South Dakotans exorbitant interest rates, are exported right out of our state. When caught in the payday lender debt trap, low-income families can’t afford to pay their rent or mortgage. Thousands are losing their cars to repossession from out-of-control car title companies.
It’s time to fix this part of the poverty industry.
In order to qualify our ballot measure for the November 2016 ballot, we must secure 13,871 valid signatures by Nov. 9 of this year. Today, we filed 20,081 signatures, 6,210 more than what is required.
We expect the Secretary of State to certify our ballot measure in the coming days. Following certification, we fully expect payday lenders to put their cadre of lawyers to work, filing a lawsuit in circuit court and working to challenge each and every one of the 20,081 signatures we’ve filed.
We remain confident that we followed the laws carefully when gathering signatures across South Dakota and that any lawsuit filed by the payday lenders will not disqualify our ballot measure.
With the work of hundreds of volunteers who have helped qualify our ballot measure, we are so proud of the support we have earned, the education this campaign has provided about the predatory lending industry and our hopeful end result of protecting financially vulnerable consumers here in South Dakota [Steven C. Hildebrand, South Dakotans for Responsible Lending, press release, 2015.11.05].
My sources tell me the poverty industry was paying circulators $25 an hour during the last couple weeks, with $250 bonuses for working Saturday and Sunday, all in an effort to foil the 36% rate cap effort with their own fake 18% rate cap petition. That expensive three-month campaign to trick South Dakota voters out of signing the real 36% rate cap petition has failed. The payday lenders and other loan sharks will now likely pour their millions into further legal challenges against the 36% petition, a propaganda campaign against the 36% rate cap, and a push to confuse voters and thwart the real 36% rate cap with their own deceptive competing ballot measure.
At the time of this posting, fake 18% rate cap petition sponsor Lisa Furlong has not yet submitted her unconscionable petition.
If Secretary Krebs certifies that 36% petition has more than the 13,871 signatures required by law, the 36% rate cap will become Initiated Measure 21 on the 2016 ballot, beneath Referred Laws 19 and 20. With 20,081, the 36% rate cap petition has a nearly 45% cushion, a margin unlikely to be overturned by normal challenge. But as we have seen from the payday lenders’ shady circulators, we shouldn’t expect them to restrict themselves to normal.
Shantel is stunningly beautiful, even prettier than Kristie. If Shantel decides to seek higher office she could easily replace KN as the centerfold of the SD GOP playbook!! Which in turn would make the GOP strangle hold on the SD political scene even more diabolical.
While everybody is slobbering on themselves gawking at the images, the GOP will continue their governance style(EB-5, Gear-Up, SoS Gant) that has become all too common.
Checks and balances? We will get around to it after we look at these pictures!!
woo woo, I am one of those signatures. Thanks to all who presented those for signature, you rule!
Your signature matters, Jerry! So does mine! So do 20,079 others! Well done, South Dakota! Now let’s hope SOS Krebs agrees with Steve’s count and puts this measure on the ballot!
SORidge, I agree, Krebs would be a more formidable opponent that Noem. I don’t want to stop Krebs from doing the good job she’s doing with the petitions and exposing Gant’s corruption. But we might want to ask her why she didn’t join in exposing Gant’s corruption back in 2012, when Senator Adelstein demanded Gant’s resignation.
DAKOTAWARCOLLEGE … Have you noticed that TheFreePress could post a story about raccoons eating only non GMO corn and there would be three times more responses than on your blog?
ugh, you bring up some interesting history Cory. Indeed, why didn’t she oust that crook when Stan was holding the door. Everyone knew he was dirty, but they still kept him on, why?
Relax boys … under the make-up, she’s not that strikingly gorgeous.
what about the payday loan backed petition? will they get enough signatures? and if not, will chuck brennan proclaim that huset’s will shut down if this passes?
Porter keep up the good work here.
Awww … Thanks, Moses. I brought my daughter back to the state a few years ago and was embarrassed and she was appalled. Anti-Women’s right’s billboards on all four roads into town. She said, “Those wouldn’t last overnight back home.” We’re a different of liberal in CO.
Not really Porter they got Gardner in colarado.I think he is a Rubio guy,how did he get elected.
I am so proud of my fellow progressive S Dakotans! This proves that SD is not a totally hopeless mess. Now get out there and keep this going! The work has just begun. I’ll leave the coffee on for you!
We’re 50/50 Dems and Repubs in CO and every election is a battle. I didn’t mean we’re a majority of liberals just a more vocal and repugnant breed. Today’s Guy Fawkes Day, progressives. Happy bonfires. PS… A compliment from you, Moses is indeed high praise. Thanks again.
Are there any statistics that show how bad people in South Dakota get F####D over by these vulture capitalists? I’d like to think ordinary citizens would be outraged by the deceit and money grubbing antics,but then reality sets in and these ordinary citizens would continue to vote in the vulture capitalists butt buddies to pass more enabling legislation.
I am hoping Porter, and C.H. have a demonstration on this.These guys can bring it out .kudos to them all.
Thank you Steve, Rev. Steve, Reynold and everyone else who made this happen! Let’s start educating voters and make this happen!
It is horrible what Messrs. Hickey and Hildebrant are trying to do to all those poor people who are too stupid or lack the self control to not frequent the robber barons. Those poor people will be forced to go without money and food or have to resort to the back alley and poolhall loan sharks. Terrible. Heinous, this picking on poor people is.
My apologies, I spelled Mr. Hildebrand’s name incorrectly. I will conserve a blogging by pointing out that Ms. Noem is far prettier than Ms. Krebs.
The other petition limiting the robber barons by twice as much got three times as many signatures. I wonder what happens if both laws get voted into place. Are they cumulative in the limits?
Krebs: the other white meat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BrAg0ouxXk
Has South Dakota ever had a Governor that spoke French?
I’m not sure how I’d feel if my mom/sister/wife/daughter were to do a photo-op and some random Internet dudes posted comments on their physical appearance. I reckon if a person gets into the political arena, their ideals, actions, and character are fair game for public discourse, but how a person looks should be irrelevant. In my opinion, that goes for men and women. I don’t care how heavy Chris Christie is but hey lets talk “bridge-gate” anytime. I admit I’m guilty of making these types of comments in private conversation, but I try to think twice before putting things out there for everyone to see.
On topic:
I am happy this will be on the ballot; the current system is parasitic and wrong. I am curious about the overall goal. Is it to eliminate payday loans all together or is it to provide a compromise? At 36%, a one month loan for $500 would only be $15 ( [.36 x 500] x 1/12 ). Will there be limits on “renewals”/extensions/fees? $180 (.36 X 500) would be a pretty good return if the customer held the loan for year.
Grudznick has a good question: what if they both pass?
Porter, I can’t speak to past governors’ francophonia, but I could arrange for a French-speaking governor….
Donald is right: neither Krebs’s hair nor Christie’s weight is relevant to the merits of the policies and proposals we discuss here.
Donald, if both the 36% and fake-18% measures (Initiated Measure 21 and Amendment U, if Krebs certifies) pass, Amendment U will annul IM 21. On extensions, I’m not sure: the petition language says the 36% limit “includ[es] all charges for any ancillary product or service and any other charge or fee incident to the extension of credit.” Would extensions/renewals by ancillary products or charges incident to the extension of credit”?
I would think extensions and renewals would be under the limit of the 36% rate (more interest tacked on because loan is now for a longer term)
I assume that ancillary product, service or charge/fee would be “flat rate” things like application fee, renewal fee, late payment fee, etc.
Excusez mon français. German est ma langue seconde. Vous seriez un gouverneur exceptionnelle, monsieur.
grudz, you asked, so here is the correct answer.
If both measures pass,
1. The new Republican legislature will declare a “mandate” on the fake 18% initiative, adopt it and take all evidence of the real 36% initiative off the books. And there will be lots of back-slapping on sine die. And many vacations will be enjoyed…
If by some miracle that doesn’t happen, the parasites will go to their back-up position and buy a judge, who will rule that the fake 18% initiative is now law. There will be lots of back-slapping. And vacations will be had.
The real 36% initiative backers will insist that the SD Supreme Court takes the matter up. And why not, it could be an income opportunity for a lot of people at various levels in the legal profession. The SD Supreme Court will rule in favor of the parasites and declare the fake 18% measure the law of the land. There will be lots of back slapping. And many vacations will be had.
Well, CAH’s learned explanation trumps my speculation, it was still worth a shot, wasn’t it? And I can’t see that it is too far off-base if the measures had equal bearing.
I’ll attempt to refine my understanding of this with an example:
Let’s say a person takes out a $1000 “short term” loan and it drags out for a year. The max the customer would have to pay back would be capped at $1360 (1000 + 360).
For sake of example, lets say the loan company charges a $5 application fee and then charges a $5 “renewal” fee every month that the loan exists. The fees would total $60, and would be included under the 36% cap, so the actual interest charged would be capped at $300 (360 – 60), making the actual loan interest rate effectively 30%.
RWB, I appreciate your reminder that even if we vote up 36 and vote down 18, the payday lenders will likely continue their fun and games with a lawsuit. But hey, one fight at a time!
Donald, I hope you’re right about the inclusion of renewals/roll-overs in the total 36% rate cap.
Porter, merci! J’essaie d’être exceptionel en toutes affaires importantes. Et une victoire électorale pour un Democrat comme moi serait la plus exceptionelle!
MOST exceptional. We’d best speak English here, though. I studied four years of German and have used it twice. Once to a couple from Deutschland we met in Mexico and I cooked next to a German chef for a year. Restaurant French came easy but had I studied French … ooo la la. Dames françaises sont intrigants.
Ich nicht sprechen zie Deutsch! :-P
Les dames intrigantes? Oui, et aussi les candidats.
It occurs to me that as annoying as the French language is that it was probably once the usurper language of the great State of South Dakota, before English and after Lakota. Or maybe after Ree, then Lakota, then Spanish.
Grudz, il y a un drapeau français dans le Capitol à Pierre, pour commémorer le fait, que les Français ont exploré et declaré la maîtrise du prairie au 18-ème siécle.
Et le français n’est pas pénible. Le français est excitant et délicieux.
Mr. H, iay on’tday understanday utwhay ouyay areay ayingsay.
What is “penible”? It sounds vaguely pornagraphic but I’m not offended by that kind of thing so it is OK.
pénible is a word you should look up, Grudz. If you visit France, you in particular will hear it a lot.
I don’t even care to go to Quebec because they all seem so high-flalootin’ and better than us average folk. I don’t think they’d let me into France if I tried real hard and I can’t sit on a boat for that long anyway.