R for regulations

Give the Ohio General Assembly credit: Every time you think state government can do no more to punish Ohio residents, they find a new way to kill jobs or restrict basic freedom. In the case of trying to eliminate the payday loan industry, state lawmakers appear willing to do both.
The Ohio Senate this week passed restrictions severe enough to shut down the payday lending industry in Ohio. Unfortunately, Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, was among the 29 senators who voted to appoint the state as your financial baby sitter. Both Sen. Steve Buehrer, R-Delta, and Sen. Larry Mumper, R-Marion, were among the four to vote against the bill. The Ohio House has to reconsider the bill, which then would go to Gov. Ted Strickland. House Speaker Jon Husted said his chamber should pass it, and Strickland has said he plans to sign it.
Ohioans again will receive nannying from Columbus. This time, it comes with the added bonus of killing an industry in this state along with thousands of jobs. Further jobs-killing regulation is a peculiar thing coming from a majority party in the General Assembly whose membership ran on lowering restrictions to make jobs creation easier. For now, the payday loan business has 1,600 outlets in Ohio, employing 6,000 people.
House Bill 545 would prohibit the two-week loans that are the bulk of the payday lending industry. It would cut the annualized interest rates on short-term loans to 28 percent, down from the current 391 percent, its sponsors say. Put another way, if you borrowed money and took an entire year to repay it rather than doing so in two weeks, you'd be paying almost four times the original amount you borrowed.
The bill also says loan terms must run at least 31 days, and borrowers can take only four loans per year.
We understand the concern some have about payday lending, but adults should be free to borrow money under the terms with which they are agreeable. Since many taking these loans are a higher risk, it's a natural result that lenders charge a higher interest rate. Many people using payday lending don't qualify for traditional loans and/or aren't borrowing a sufficient amount to ask a traditional lending institution. Further, if a person either wants or needs to borrow a fifth amount, what route would Faber and others suggest he go?
Faber ran on the idea of getting government out of the way, so we question why he is promoting the Nanny State. We hope that, when the House reconsiders the payday-lending killer, Reps. Matt Huffman, Cliff Hite, Lynn Wachtmann, Jim Zehringer, John Adams and Tony Core show more respect for jobs and their constituents' economic freedom than Faber has.