“The banks broke our economy and it's time they pay to fix it,” reads an email invitation from the Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC) to last Thursday's “Make Banks Pay” community meeting held at True Light Baptist Church.....
A new report released today shows that good paying jobs are in small supply throughout the West.
In
Colorado, for every 15 people looking for jobs, there is only one job
opening that will pay the $29.71 needed to support single parent with
two children, according to the report released by the Northwest
Federation of Community Organization.
What started as a car-repair emergency
quickly escalated into a financial crisis that Mercy Salazar would
rather have kept secret.
But instead of hiding her story about how she got tangled up in a
cycle of payday lending, the University of Colorado Denver graduate
student now tells her story to help move legislation that Latino
activists say is intended to protect them.
A House committee Monday night approved
a bill that would significantly slash interest rates on payday loans,
cutting out part of the bill that would have put the issue before
Colorado voters.
Previous attempts to put stricter limits on payday lenders have
failed in recent years amid bipartisan opposition. But with some key
opponents now out of the legislature, supporters are girding for battle
anew.
Payday-loan customers could see drastically lower interest rates if a bill
scheduled to hit the Capitol today can overcome barriers that unraveled a
similar plan two years ago.
The legislation would let Colorado voters decide this year whether to cap at
36 percent annual interest rates, which can now climb higher than 300 percent
on the small sums.
Opponents predict a complete shuttering of the payday-lending industry in
Colorado should the proposal succeed.
Perhaps as early as Monday, Colorado
legislators can expect to see a bill to begin the process of reining in payday
loans. The bill will likely ask lawmakers to approve a referred measure that
would ask voters to apply the state's existing interest cap of 36 percent to
payday loans. Payday loans are now exempt from the state's usury law.
The Legislature should approve the
bill and let voters choose whether to end this predatory lending.
Dem lawmakers want 36% rate cap; foes say it would be a job-killer
On a snowy morning in
Denver yesterday, Rep. Mark Ferrandino and Sen. Chris Romer, both Denver
Democrats, announced plans to introduce legislation today that would cap payday
loan rates at 36 percent APR. If approved by the Legislature, the measure would
go to the voters later this year rather than to Gov. Bill Ritter's desk.
