Arizona voters clear on payday loan businesses

Despite the fact that voters of Arizona spoke very clearly a year ago when they rejected a ballot issue that would have allowed so-called payday loan businesses to continue to operate in our state, Gov. Jan Brewer isn't opposed to potentially reversing that vote.

That sends the wrong message to voters, and we hope she reconsiders her position.

Payday loan operations - which provide borrowers with short-term cash loans until their next payday at high interest rates - were authorized in an Arizona law which expires in June.

Voters rejected the idea of removing that expiration date - even with consumer protection concessions from the industry - thus closing down these loan operations in Arizona.

We supported the idea of allowing payday loans to continue at the time of the vote, although we did feel measures needed to be put in place to limit interest rates and to protect consumers from abuse.

Some consumers do find the short-term loans useful and are willing to pay the huge interest rates charged for them. While that is an unwise decision in our view, we argued borrowers should have the right to make their own decision.

Obviously, a majority of voters - who rejected the payday loans by a 3-to-2 margin - disagreed with our viewpoint.

We got the message the voters sent but perhaps the governor and lawmakers missed it.

Proposed legislation is being drafted that would nullify the will of the voters.

The payday industry is making another push to remain in business, with the help of some close political advisers to the governor who are connected with the lending industry, a clear conflict for the governor when it comes to this issue.  

We agree with the governor that the Legislature has the right to consider any matter it chooses, but reversing the will of the voters is nearly always a very bad idea since it undermines their confidence in the system. This instance is no exception to that rule.