Arizona Senator: Payday Loan Stores Should Leave City, State

Historical archive, first published 2007 — payday-lending laws and rates have changed since. Preserved for the record.

Sen. Chuck Gray, (R-Mesa, pictured) introduced a bill Tuesday that would limit instant payday loan store interest rates to 36 percent annually, including fees and fines. Gray said testimony indicates rates on the short-term loans “can be in excess of 500 percent, and we’ve heard from 700 to 1,000 percent.”

West Mesa has the highest concentration of payday cash advance stores in the state.

“It’s basically check-kiting,” Gray said, adding that the centers target “the segment of society that can least afford to go into debt.

“These kinds of facilities are not something that government should condone. I don’t think they’ve brought anything to society that is of any worth, so I’m hoping they will pack up and leave the state. Either that or live with 36 percent interest.”

The bill, SB1051, now goes to committee.

Members of ACORN, a community activist group, have picketed one payday loan company after another in recent months, claiming they take advantage of the poor.