Fee For KC Payday Loan Shops Up To Voters
Voters will decide April 8 if the city can charge payday loan businesses an annual $1,000 fee.
It is Question 2 on the Kansas City ballot.
Payday loans businesses are where people can get a short-term loan fast. Those in the payday loan business call it a service for people in a financial pinch.
Dwight McQuade called the proposed fee City Hall overkill. He said there is the incorrect perception that payday loan stores use high interest rates to victimize the poor. But McQuade told KMBC’s Martin Augustine that his customers are primarily middle class people who need a quick loan when the car breaks down or their children need medicine.
“They think that we take advantage of individuals. We don’t. We’re cheaper than if they bounce a check,” McQuade said.
Augustine reported that one person who would disagree with McQuade is Kansas City Councilwoman Jan Marcason, who represents the Fourth District. Marcason said her district is home to nearly one-third of the city’s total of 110 payday loan businesses.
“They really do get people in a financial hole,” Marcason said.
Marcason recently led a charge to rezone payday loan stores, restricting their locations and signs. Marcason said the $1,000 fee would cover the cost of administering the new rules. She said the fee would pay for two people to regulate the new zoning rules on payday loan stores.
“They seem to make enough money because there is such a proliferation of payday loans. If they weren’t lucrative, there would not be this many payday loans,” Marcason said.
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