Mary Still

For those new to the issue:

Missourians for Responsible Lending is a real deal grassroots campaign to reform the Payday Loan Industry and limit the APR to 36%, down from the current 1900%.

The out-of-state bankers and lawyers that make up corporate opposition groups Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity and Stand Up Missouri have been bringing out all the stops as they realize they're about to be reined in.

The most recent bit of trickery the loan sharks have practiced is writing up two new ballot initiatives themselves, that also "reform" Payday Loans. Here's exerpts from the St. Louis Beacon's article.

Good news: "A House-approved payday lending bill is dead for this year, but two senators — one Republican and one Democrat — say they plan to write a much tougher measure in time for next year’s session."

The Post-Dispatch reminds Republicans in the General Assembly that the payday lending reforms proposed by Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia) and others are patterned after federal legislation credited to Sen. Jim Talent that "limited the financial damage payday-loan companies can inflict on military families."

PAYDAY LOAN HYPOCRISY: MISSOURI GOP FORGETS EXAMPLE SET BY JIM TALENT

...The debate about payday loans shouldn’t be about politics; it should be about fairness and justice.

And that’s why we bring Mr. Talent into the debate. We could bring in former Gov. Matt Blunt, the Republican who sought to remove payday-loan facilities from nursing homes. Or U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, the uber-conservative congressman from Tarkio who sponsored a measure similar to Mr. Talent’s.

The Planned Parenthood Truth Tour rolled through Missouri this weekend, stopping in Springfield, Columbia and St. Louis before heading on to other destinations.  Designed to counter the lies of anti-women's health extremists and demonstrate the broad support in communities around the country, the Missouri events featured patients, doctors, clergy, nurses, staff, elected leaders and supporters.   Representatives Stephen Webber and Mary Still spoke at this morning's rally in Columbia, Representative Tishaura Jones spoke in St. Louis and Representative Sara Lampe spoke in Springfield. The St. Louis stop also featured Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

For more photos, video and information, check out IStandWithPlannedParenthood.blogspot.com.

I snagged a few photos at the Columbia stop...

Planned Parenthood staff have more from Springfield here and more from Columbia here.

And here are some shaky iPhone vids from Columbia as well...

"I am flattered by the confidence Speaker Tilley has in my legislative skills, but I am only a sophomore in the minority party and have no ability to block legislation...Perhaps what speaker Tilley meant to say is that I am hard to work against --- that is because the public understands this is an industry that preys on the most vulnerable in our society and that is wrong."

Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia) on Speaker Steve Tilley's (R-Perryville) sad attempts to blame her for his refusal to reign in abusive lending practices in Missouri

Speaker Steve Tilley continues to blame his shameless support for predatory lenders and the outrageous actions of Republican leaders like Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash) on Mary Still:

When the conversation turned to payday loan reforms, Tilley blamed the lack of progress personally on State Rep. Mary Still, a Columbia Democrat who worked for Jay Nixon in the Attorney General's Office. Still has sponsored a payday loan every year since she was elected in 2008

"Mary is not the easiest person to work with on either side of the aisle,"Tilley said. "She's had no luck getting anything achieved."

If Tilley, the previous Most Powerful Man in Missouri or any of the other leaders who control what bills pass or don't pass in the House cared about their constituents, they'd change the law.  But they care about the profits of the lenders like Wells, so they don't.  It's very simple.

Rep. Ellen Brandom (R-Sikeston) is distributing legislation to House colleagues today that she says would call for "significant reforms" regarding payday lending in Missouri.  But early indications are that its alleged "reforms" are significant only in how little they do to reign in abusive practices. 

According to Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia), Brandom's "pro-industry bill" would still allow payday loans to have annual percentage rates up to 1,450% (down a smidgen from the current 1,950% maximum).   This would still be the highest allowed rate in the country, followed by Mississippi at a relatively meager 572%.

Who could have guessed that legislation blessed by Speaker Steve Tilley (R-Perryville) and Rep. Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash) would be so awesome?

"The payday industry is supporting the bill."

Today in the Star: "Thanks to the governor and legislature, Missouri has parked itself in the nation’s ashtray...It’s time for the state’s leaders to step up. Missouri’s cigarette tax should be in line with its neighbors and the national average. At 17 cents a pack, it’s making the state the butt of a bad joke."

Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) penned an op-ed for the Tribune yesterday calling for someone besides him to round up the cash and signatures to put a cigarette tax on the ballot in Missouri.  The state's cigarette tax is ridiculously low, and I think an increase makes sense -- both for the extra revenue and to create additional disincentives for smoking, which smoking and non-smoking taxpayers all pay for down the line. 

However, Schaefer's op-ed doesn't give any indication that he plans to do anything beyond expressing general support an increase at convenient times as he prepares for his re-election fight in 2012.  He poo-poos legislation proposed by Rep. Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) and others (HB181), saying it wouldn't raise cigarette taxes as much as he'd like because of Hancock Law limitations.  

Moreover, he hasn't sponsored or co-sponsored any legislation to date to send an increase directly to voters, which would get around any Hancock limits.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports that an informal working group organized by Speaker Steve Tilley has been meeting with lobbyist for the payday lending industry -- but not members of the public or consumer advocates -- and they think they have something that they might call "reform" that may or may not do anything to limit the industry's predatory practices. From reporter Rudi Keller's story: 

The eight-member group, never formalized as a committee, has been meeting with representatives of the industry but has not held public hearings on the issue. Tilley, R-Perryville, and House Democratic Leader Mike Talboy, D-Independence, were members as was Rep. Don Wells, R-Cabool, and chairman of the House Financial Institutions Committee, Tilley said yesterday in a session with reporters.

In that discussion, Tilley said the bill he expects would reduce the number of times a borrower can renew a loan and impose at least a one-day waiting period for taking out a new loan. Tilley said he was not sure yet whether the bill would lower the legal interest rate, which is a maximum of 1,955 percent. A recent state report shows the average annual interest rate on the loans, typically for as long as two weeks, is 443 percent...

As to why she has been shut out of Tilley’s attempt at crafting legislation, [Rep. Mary] Still said she believes she is too strong an advocate for consumers. “Maybe the fact that I have been successful in articulating the issue to the public makes him want to dismiss me,” she said. “My proposal is exactly the proposal of Jim Talent, a Republican who wanted to protect military families.”

The average annual percentage rate for payday loans in Missouri is 444.61 percent.

Speaker Steve Tilley knows that he and his GOP colleagues are on the wrong side of the payday lending issue, so he's turned to personal attacks on Rep. Mary Still, the driving force for reform in the Missouri House:

Still complained today that she was not asked to be a member and was not allowed to speak when she attended meetings of the group.

Tilley said the panel was not a formal committee and was not required to hear from everyone with an opinion on the loan companies.

“Over the past few years, for both sides, Republicans and Democrats, she [Still] has been a kind of polarizing person on this issue, and she hasn’t been very successful,” Tilley said. “Hopefully we can come up with a solution that can actually work. Filing a bill and throwing bombs and never getting anything accomplished doesn’t help very much.”

Tilley's assertion that Still is somehow responsible for a lack of movement on payday lending reform legislation is absurd and pathetic.  By all accounts, the Republican leadership -- including Tilley, then-Speaker Ron Richard and payday loan shop owner Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash)-- who went out of their way to block a vote on Still's legislation.  Indeed, House Dems moved last April to pull Still's bill from the sham committee run by Wells and Rep. Mike Cunningham (R-Rogersville) after Wells presided over an outrageous one-sided "hearing" for predatory lenders to praise themselves.  This is what the Tribune's Hank Waters wrote about House Republicans' "low-jinks" last year:

PAYDAY
Conflict of interest, in spades

When first I read about the low-jinks of Rep. Don Wells, it was hard to believe. This week the Cabool Republican staged the most self-serving House committee hearing possible to imagine.

Acting in behalf of the ailing chairman of the House Financial Institutions committee, Wells held what he called a “lending presentation,” in which payday loan promoters were invited to explain the values of their industry but the other side was excluded.

To compound the outrage, Wells himself is owner of a payday loan business.

The Tribune's Terry Ganey reports that 60 House Democrats "signed a 'discharge petition'" to remove Rep. Mary Still's payday lending legislation "from the control of the House Financial Institutions Committee and place it on the House calendar for consideration." The bill will now be technically on the list of bills the House can consider, but there's little reason to believe Speaker Ron Richard or Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley will let a vote on the bill happen.

The Democrats' move comes a week after Ethical Superstar and payday loan operator Don Wells (R-Cabool) used committee time to let industry lobbyists extol the virtues of payday lending without actually considering Still's bill or allowing for opposition comment.

Terry Ganey has a must-read story in the Tribune today about the Financial Institutions Committee committee hearing led last night by Rep. Don Wells (R-Cabool).  Though Speaker Ron Richard (finally) assigned Rep. Mary Still's payday loan reform legislation to the committee on Monday, Wells and Chairman Michael Cunningham (R-Rogersville) chose to hold a "presentation on lending" -- but not consider Still's bill. Ganey:

No hearing was scheduled on Still’s bill, but a vague notice for the committee meeting last night said there would be a "presentation on lending.” The presentation, a pre-emptive strike on Still’s bill, turned out to be all in favor of payday loans.

George Kennedy's new column in the Missourian:

Anti-health care mood reflection of Republican ignorance

We know that God must love idiots because he made so many of them. What’s less clear is why they seem to congregate in our state Capitol.

Rep. Mary Still (D-Columbia) is hosting a "district hearing" at the Columbia Public Library tonight for public and expert input on the abuses of payday loan companies.  Still sponsored legislation this year to restrict interest rates on payday loans, but Speaker Ron Richard refused to assign the bill to a committee until the last day of the session, effectively killing the bill before it could even be considered.

Also speaking tonight will be Rep. John Burnett (D-Kansas City), UMKC economics and law professor Bill Black and representatives from the AARP and Better Business Bureau.

In preparation for the event, organizers distributed the following facts about payday loans in the Show-Me State:

• The latest Missouri Division of Finance report documents that payday lenders in Missouri charge an average interest rate of 430.68%.
• Missouri's law allows interest rates of up to 1,980%.

Conference calls are annoying.

What I didn't learn from this article, however, is what was actually said on today's call with progressive activists who care about real healthcare reform.

UPDATE: Jo Mannies at The Beacon has the story: 

Why now? [State Sen. Jeff] Smith said the aim was to show that, in the wake of heavy opposition from Republicans and private insurers, there would be local politicians who will go to bat for a public option. The message to the White House, he said: "We have their back."

The legislators sidestepped the question of whether the timing was tied to concerns by public-option supporters that Obama and his administration are backing off.

But state Rep. Mary Still, D-Columbia, said some legislators -- including herself -- were actively lobbying the federal government because "there is not the political will in this state to fix the health-care system."

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