As Cash America shifts away from payday lending and back toward its pawnbroker roots, the company wants Ohio to let it charge higher interest rates for making pawn loans. After failing to get legislation passed during the past four years, the Texas-based company, which employs 11 lobbyists in Ohio, persuaded House Republicans to insert the provision into the new two-year budget, which has drawn fire from pawnshops, law enforcement and consumer advocates. The provision, one of hundreds of changes the House made to the two-year, $71.5 billion budget before passing it last month, creates a separate pawnbroker license that would allow larger companies to charge higher rates. The...
↧