LOD: New Loan Costs Reward Donors

Consumers will likely see the cost of small loans go up in North Carolina, thanks to a bill in the NC General Assembly that will hike interest rates and add new fees. According to a detailed report by Democracy North Carolina, the bill is the reward for finance company owners suddenly shifting allegiance and pumping more than $100,000 into the 2010 campaigns of 15 Republican challengers and the top 3 Republican leaders in the General Assembly. Most of the industry donors have never given so generously to legislative candidates, but they responded to a call by their lobbyists to give to a list of Republicans in hot contests, beginning in August 2010. Military leaders in North Carolina, the state’s banking commissioner and consumer groups are all against the bill, but the House Banking Committee approved it last week. It fits into a series of legislation that helps advance narrow business interests over the public interest, an imbalance that is fast becoming a major achievement of the 2011 General Assembly.