Council members agree
The Carson City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously that it will not require payday lenders in the city to have conditional-use permits.
It seems once again payday lenders were targeted by lawmakers, but this time they changed their mind.
Unfairly targeted
The Planning Commission in February decided it would require the conditional use permits. That means payday lenders would have to secure an additional permit on top of their business license. The permits restrict conditions and locations under which the stores can operate.
The City Council agreed that it was unfair to require payday lenders to have conditional use permits.
One bad apple
The legislation was introduced after the Planning Council discovered two of the city’s 11 payday lenders were operating illegally. One payday loan store didn’t comply with fire codes and the other didn’t have a business license.
Of course, the City Council came to the logical conclusion that they already had reason to penalize the two stores committing violations. They didn’t need to add unnecessary legislation. Here’s a report from dailyreeze.com:
Sergio Carrillo, of the Community Financial Services Association of America, argued the city should use its existing codes to go after businesses that are out of compliance, rather than creating new regulations for everyone.
The council agreed.
“It isn’t fair to punish all of them,” Councilwoman Julie Ruiz Raber said.
“Why punish nine businesses for the actions of two that we need to regulate?” asked Councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes.
Commentary
The Planning Council had wanted to use the conditional use permits to keep payday loan stores out of certain areas, supposedly areas where the surrounding residents didn’t want them.
I say let the consumer decide. If a payday loan store opens up in an area where people don’t want it, no one will go there. The store will close. Problem solved. If a payday loan store makes enough money to operate a store in a certain location, obviously people want it there.
I think some facts in this story should have been checked much more carefully. This is not a Carson City Nevada story as the headline states. First off we don’t have city council, and even on our board of supervisors there is nobody with these names.
The city council had it right – it isn’t fair to punish the whole at the expense of the misguided few. To that end, I believe that any tax increases going before any government legislature come strictly out of the legislators and staffers pocket!
More time and focus should be dedicated to other important topics in our economy. I’m glad more legislators finally understand the importance of the payday loan industry. The current recession has definitely taken a toll on everyone to some degree and people are need of this type of financial resource now more than ever before.