I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A state lawmaker who helped push through a 2007 law to limit payday lending abuses said Wednesday she plans to file legislation this January to impose tougher restrictions.
The news of Rep. Patricia Lundstrom’s intention comes a day after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Diane Denish announced she would work to make predatory lending practices, including in payday lending, a crime if elected governor.
“I’m certainly not for eliminating the industry, but for stricter regulations on it,” the Gallup Democrat told The Independent. “I’m saying let’s get our arms around it.”
Lundstrom was one of the central legislative figures in the years-long push to crack down on predatory practices by payday lenders that resulted in the 2007 law meant to curb abuses.
“It is correct that some of the industry has worked around the payday law,” Lundstrom said. Payday lenders that otherwise would have had to abide by the 2007 law used provisions in existing law to keep lending, sometimes at extremely high, even exorbitant rates, she said.
“They morphed … into car title and installment loans” that weren’t covered under the payday lending law of 2007, Lundstrom said.
Her proposal would cap several types of short-term loans, Lundstrom said. A law addressing predatory lending practices “needs to comprehensive and standardized,” Lundstrom said.
Lundstrom’s intention to offer up her proposal offers a glimpse into how varying ideas on how to crack down on predatory lending practices could vie for the attention of state lawmakers if the Legislature chooses to make the issue a priority in January.
