Wednesday, October 10, 2007

When House Speaker Jon Husted decided to encourage bipartisan sponsorship of bills in the current legislative session, it surprised many.

No one could remember it being done before, as the relationship between the two parties in Ohio’s House had leaned toward acrimony for more than a decade.

But now there’s a two-party bill that has raised eyebrows; deals with payday loans. It would prohibit a check-cashing business from granting a loan to someone who still owes money on a similar faxless payday loan.

The bill was the idea of Rep. William Batchelder, R-Medina, whose views tend to outflank the party’s most conservative members. A constitutional expert, he wrote a bill credited with saving the state’s small banks in the 1980s, then voted against it because he thought it created too much government interference.

He went shopping among House Democrats for a co-sponsor for his personal loan bill and found one: Robert Hagan of blue-collar Youngstown, one of the most liberal of Democrats in his 20 years in the legislature.
It was a natural.

“Hagan and I have been personal friends. I always admired his ability to take on tough scraps, and I think he thought that of me,” Batchelder said. “Bob Hagan is a good, serious legislator and a good salesman.”

Batchelder previously served in the House from 1967-98, when term limits led him to accept a judgeship. He returned to his first love this year, representing the suburban Cleveland district.

Batchelder once even signed up on a bill sponsored by Hagan’s father, also named Robert, who in 1987 became the first father to serve alongside his son in the House.

The younger Hagan said his friendship with Batchelder made it easy for him to sign on to the bill involving payday loans online.

“We’ve always had respect for each other. Sometimes I think he’s too conservative for his own good, but it fits his district,” Hagan said.

Well-documented problems in the payday-loan business have attracted the legislature’s attention, with three bills seeking more regulation already introduced and more likely on the way. Even with those loans‘ high interest rates, tracking multiple borrowers is a more urgent issue, both lawmakers said.

“If somebody hit a bump in the road and had to go through this, it would be bad, but you need to keep track of what people are borrowing,” Batchelder said.

“These multiple loans are really beating them up,” Hagan agreed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Ohio.