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Brewer not opposed to legislation to save payday-loan industry

From Capitol Media Services 12/1/09:

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday that she’s willing to consider legislation to let the payday-loan industry remain in business despite a public vote to the contrary.

And she said her views are not affected by the fact that close advisers to her reelection campaign are on the payroll of the lenders.

The new push by the industry comes just a year after voters, by a 3-2 ratio, killed payday lenders’ initiative drive to repeal a law that will make them go out of business at the end of next June.

That loss came despite the lenders’ pumping $14.7 million into a public-relations campaign. And it came even after the industry offered to alter its business practices to gain public support, including a slightly lower interest rate, a ban on rollovers and an interest-free repayment plan for those who can’t make good on their checks at the end of two weeks.

Now the industry is back, this time hoping lawmakers will do what voters would not.

Brewer said she has no problem with the Legislature’s further considering the issue.

“If they want to go in there and discuss payday loans, I think that’s what they were elected to do.”

Brewer brushed aside questions about whether breathing new life into a industry voters said they want to go away amounts to ignoring what the public wants.

“Actually, it’s my understanding from what I read in the newspaper and from the little bit of briefing from my staff that the payday lenders … are going to go in and they’re going to make some modifications,” the governor said of the industry’s latest plan.

But the proposal sketched out for Capitol Media Services by former Attorney General Grant Woods, now working for the industry, is virtually identical to what was rejected in 2008. That includes a proposal to lower the annual percentage rate from more than 450 percent now to 391 percent.

Woods also is co-chair of Brewer’s re-election campaign. And the day-to-day mechanics of her campaign are being handled by Highground, a political consulting firm that also has contracted to help the payday-loan industry push its measure through the Legislature.

Brewer said none of that affects her views.

“Well, you know, campaign people and professional people that do public relations represent a multitude” of people, the governor said.

“I don’t see any conflict. They haven’t spoken to me about it. So I don’t see a problem with it.”

Brewer said she couldn’t recall how she voted on the industry-financed initiative last year.

The governor said she cannot say whether there is a need for the industry, which essentially provides two-week unsecured loans of up to $500. The current fee is $17.85 for every $100 borrowed, a fee lenders propose to cap at $15.

The governor promised she would be “watching carefully” what happens to the measure during the upcoming session and “will do what’s right for the people of Arizona.”

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