Payday loan initiative stays on ballot
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POLSON — A decision by District Judge C.B. McNeil last Thursday will keep an initiative to cap interest rates on payday loans on the Nov. 2 ballot for all Montanans.
Several opponents of the bill, including two business owners registered to vote in Lake County, challenged CI-164 on the grounds that signatures were improperly gathered for a petition to get the initiative on the ballot. Plaintiffs argued that M&R Strategic Services, a company hired to gather signatures by CI-164’s primary supporters — a group called “400 percent is Too High — Cap the Rate” — failed to attach the full text of I-164 to each of the petitions, that there were false affidavits by signature gatherers and that petitions were unlawfully notarized.
McNeil found that “no credible evidence of unqualified electors’ signatures being counted in the certification totals … (and) that no evidence of forgery or fraudulent tactics was introduced” by the plaintiffs.
The state certified the initiative after supporters turned in the signatures of 27,421 registered voters in 54 districts. The initiative seeks to cap the interest rate on payday loans at 36 percent, a move that business owners who make small, short-term loans say will put them out of business.
Plaintiffs were Todd A. Coutts, Dwane Ingram, Shelley L. Gould, Q.C. Holdings, Inc., and Bernard J. Harrington, all of whom operate businesses that “stand to be directly affected if I-164 is enacted,” McNeil wrote in his decision. Harrington is also treasurer of a political committee called the Coalition for Consumer Choice Against I-164.
Ingram, a contractor and consultant with Tradewinds Real Estate in Polson, said he didn’t “really have comments” on the court case.
Coutts is also registered to vote in Lake County and owns a Missoula business called Montana Sales and Loan.
To qualify an initiative to appear on the November ballot, signatures must be obtained from 5 percent of qualified voters in the state, which must include at least 5 percent of qualified voters in 34 of Montana’s 100 legislative house districts. The total number of signatures required to place an initiative on the 2010 ballot is 24,337.
