We’re close enough to the Ohio border, and the news headline has popped up on Toledo TV that some of us Monroe residents watch, that I think Monroe on a Budget’s local readers will want to be aware of this debate in Columbus:

The Columbus Dispatch reports today: 2,500 protest at Statehouse against payday-lending restrictions.

A snippet:

The Ohio House on April 30 passed House Bill 545, which caps the annual interest rate on payday loans at 28 percent, down from the current 391 percent, and limits loans to a maximum of $500. The Senate is now considering the legislation.

Speakers at the rally today said such a law would drive 1,600 stores out of business because they could not make a profit on the loans they make. The closing of the stores would eliminate more than 6,000 jobs in Ohio, they said.

James Frauenberg, an executive at the Dublin-based Checksmart, said that the proposed law will eliminate payday loans, but will not change the consumer’s demand for them.

The photo shows a crowd of people holding protest signs. One reads “Save My Mommy’s Job.”

OK let’s talk common sense here. If a consumer who is living paycheck-to-paycheck is spending XXX amount on short-term loan fees, regardless of whether it is through a payday loan, tax refund anticipation loan, credit card advance or checking overdraft, then she’s not able to spend that money on other goods and services.

And those purchases on other goods and services could keep someone who is worried about her payday loan job employed IN ANOTHER LINE OF WORK!

Am I right?

Now, the real goal we all need to strive for is to keep families who are on the financial brink from going to those expensive services in the first place.

If you can put into your routines less expensive, realistic and practical solutions for keeping household bills paid on time, then you are buying your family time and peace of mind when emergencies hit just before payday.

The original tag line for this blog was “Tips for making it to the next payday.”

“Frugal finances in Southeast Michigan” is a more appropriate tag line now that we’ve attracted a national audience.

But it’s frugal finances that will help get you to the next payday – without a payday loan.