For the first time in the decade that payday lending had been legal in South Carolina, a bill is on the fast track to be passed to re-regulate the industry. One of the reasons is the leadership of Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell. When it came down to it, the bill passed by an overwhelming majority — 93-16.
“Regulating the practice and enacting consumer safeguards is the right thing to do,” Harrell said in a statement. “These loans are meant to be short-term financial solutions for unforeseen expenses, capping the loan amount and creating a statewide database to ensure that someone can only have one loan at a time will help prevent individuals from falling into a bottomless cycle of debt.”
But, that doesn’t mean the bill was passed quickly or easily. On Wednesday, the House reconvened at 2 p.m., and the vote did not finish until about 6:46 p.m. Over four and a half hours of debate and gnashing of teeth, considering over 40 amendments to the bill.
Rep. Chris Hart started off consideration of the bill by trying to recommit the bill to committee, followed by continuing the bill to the next session and moving to adjourn the debate. Each motion was roundly defeated.
Then came the amendments. The first one, proposed by the committee, resolved a problem in wording of the bill. Amendments two through 41, though, mostly tried to derail the legislation.
Rep. Alan Clemmons, a typical reliable vote on pro-business legislation, had major issues with the payday lending industry and was the chief sponsor of amendments seven through 22. As the debate went later in the day, he withdrew some amendments, but, more often than not, took the podium to criticize the bill, and watched as amendment after amendment was tabled.
Clemmons methods drew ire from LCI chairman Bill Sandifer, who said that there were several methods to kill a bill, and that among them was a filibuster by amendments.
As the clock neared 6:30 p.m., Rep. Bakari Sellers introduced the final amendment to the bill. An earlier version, Amendment 37, mandated that a payday lending firm must donate 10 cents from every loan to the state Department of Consumer Affairs for financial literacy education. Sellers said the revenue should be around $400,000. Because of a typo, though, Amendment 37, which was agreed to on voice vote, was thrown out.
Sellers introduced a fixed amendment, but Rep. Gary Simrill stepped to the podium and condemned the amendment as a way of growing government by $400,000. He then asked for a roll call vote.
“In times we’re in, do we really need to see government spending grow,” Rep. Nathan Ballentine asked on his blog on Wednesday. “Obviously, we don’t even have enough revenues to cover what current programs we have now. Sure, the revenue for this spending wouldn’t come from tax dollars. But, here’s where we as elected officials have to look down the road instead of just at the next election cycle.
“What do you think would happen once our state got these programs up and running based off the revenue coming in and then the revenue started declining? That’s right. We’d see cuts to the program/employees and/or your tax dollars later being needed to fund a program put in place because of a simple voice vote on the 37th amendment on a bill late one February afternoon.”
Sure enough, the amendment lost with 44 votes for and 60 against. The full bill moves on to its third reading.
