Featured Articles
Ohio's Payday Solution a Bigger Problem
By David Hansen and Tom Schatz
There appears to be an orchestrated effort across the country to essentially shutdown the payday loan industry. Legislation offered in various states, including H.B. 333, currently under consideration in the Ohio General Assembly, all feature a similar set of regulatory changes, like a cap on payday loan interest rates at around 36 percent, restricting the number of loans that can be obtained in a year, and prohibiting loan origination fees. Ohio legislators should take a pass on H.B. 333.t.
Buckeye Voices
In this week's Buckeye Voices podcast, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation's Labor Policy Analyst Scott Dilley discusses labor union accountability with Buckeye Institute President David Hansen.
Adding to Ohio's Budget Problems
The
Cleveland
Plain Dealer reports,
"Ohio's governor hopes to add nearly 21,000 uninsured children onto
Medicaid, a modest step in the efforts to add a half-million more
residents to the ranks of the insured by 2011. Two other newly
established state programs may add 5,000 children, many with
pre-existing medical conditions, into a private health plan by allowing
families to pay a monthly premium. Some 7,000 disabled adults can also
pay to get on Medicaid."
In
More
Medicaid Problems for Ohio,
Buckeye
Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes, "In tight economic times, when
expenses are rising and your paycheck may even be shrinking, most
families decide to cut back on expensive items. It makes little sense
to buy a pricey high-definition TV when your electricity bill has
doubled and your job is reducing overtime, right? This kind of common
sense thinking, however, is lost on Governor Ted Strickland. At a time
when state agencies are trying to trim budgets and the state is facing
large budget deficits, he is trying to expand one of the most expensive
parts of the state budget – Medicaid."
School Choice is Popular
"Students and private schools alike are showing more interest in state tuition vouchers as the statewide program prepares for its third school year. About 40 percent of the 10,047 applications filed by yesterday's deadline were for students who had not previously used a taxpayer-funded voucher to attend a private school. The total number of applications was up by about 2,150 from last year," according to the Columbus Dispatch.
In School Choice and Civil Rights, Buckeye Institute Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow writes, "Ohio's charter schools and vouchers are changing the dynamic and offering a solution. The programs infuse the underperforming public education system with a healthy dose of free market competition. And through that competition, improve education across the board."
The True Rate of Payday Loans
The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorializes, "They say there's no truer believer than a convert, so Ohioans are entitled to expect the General Assembly to enact no-gimmick payday lending reform. As Ohio law now stands, payday lenders may charge borrowers an annual interest rate of 391 percent. That's obscene. "
In
The
Sound and Fury over Payday Lending, Marc Kilmer writes, "One
tactic the opponents of payday lending like to bring up is the
ostensibly high annual percentage rate of payday loans. However, an
annual percentage rate is purely theoretical. Payday loans are usually
made for two weeks and lenders charge people $15 per $100 borrowed.
Borrowers understand this. While most cannot tell researchers the
annual percentage rate of their loan, almost all know the fees they are
required to pay. Borrowers focus on the real cost of the loan, not its
theoretical yearly rate."
Buckeye Institute in the News
In his weekly New York Sun column, Buckeye Institute Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow Ken Blackwell discusses the Pope.
The Hillsboro Times Gazette published Buckeye Institute Senior Fellow Sam Staley's article on Skybus.
