Pima County, Arizona, Seeks Restrictions on Payday Loan Locales
By Roman ParchowskyPayday Loan Writer
Pima County, Arizona, may put the brakes on the meteoric growth of payday loan businesses.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday, at Democrat Richard Elias’ request, to have the county staff draw up a law that could either limit the number of check-cashing businesses, or regulate how close one can be to another. This law would include Tuscon if officials determine this is a public welfare issue.
In terms of limitting the number, the board would like to see a limit set of 1 store per 10,000 residents. Currently there’s 1 per 7,200.
As far as distance? They would like to see the minimum distance between store to be 500 or even 1,000 feet.
This could be a big detriment to the explosive growth (16 stores in ‘00 to up 78 in ‘03) of the payday loan industry in Tuscon. — nearly bringing it to a halt.
