JEFFERSION CITY Six out-of-state companieshave joined the fight against a ballot measure limiting how muchlenders can charge for payday loans in Missouri, pouring bigdonations into a new political committee.
Over the last three weeks, the companies have contributed a total of $216,000 to a group called Stand UpMissouri. The group was organized last month to oppose a ballotmeasure that aims to cap the annual interest rates on certain loans- including payday and car title loans - at 36 percent.
Another organization -- called Missourians for Equal CreditOpportunity - is also opposing the measure. It has received around $600,000 in contributions from a KansasCity-based nonprofit called Missourians for ResponsibleGovernment.
In contrast, the group organized to support the ballot issue -- Missourians forResponsible Lending - has only raised around $50,000.
The donors to Stand UpMissouri , which touts itself a "non-partisan coalition whichrepresents consumers, businesses, civic groups and faith-basedorganizations from across the state," are:
- Wallace Management Co. of McAlester, Okla.
- Security Group Inc. of Spartanburg, S.C.
- Brundage Management Company Inc. of San Antonio, Texas
- Western Shamrock Corp. of San Angelo, Texas
- Tower Loan of Flowood, Miss.
- World Acceptance Corp. of Greenville, S.C.
Tom Hudgins, who is listed as CEO and chairman of Stand UpMissouri, is also the vice president of WesternShamrock Corp. ,
In 2010, there were about 1,040 payday loan stores in Missouri,according to the Missouri Division of Finance. Missouri is secondonly to Tennessee among its neighbors in the number of licensedpayday lenders. Some 2.43 million payday loans were made inMissouri in 2010.
The average interest rate for a payday loan in Missouri is 445percent annually, which is higher than the national average of 391percent.
Supporters of the ballot measure say they are currently workingto collect enough signatures to put the issue before voters nextyear.There is also a lawsuit challening the measure's proposedballot language.The lead plaintiff in that lawsuit is JohnPrentzler, an executive with Kansas-based QC Holdings Inc.
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