Republicans don't want to "interfere with the free market" unless it involves a liquor store, gambling, a bar, a sexually oriented business, or any other sort of operation that is immoral in their eyes. Apparently, greed and usury are completely consistent with the values of the Utah Republican Party.

I think that Pay Day loan store are like going to Vegas and loosing all of your $$$$$ that you don't have, It would eb nice that if all the Pay Day Loan Stores would shut down, To me it is like Gambeling all of your $$$$ away, When will they ever learn? the is the problem they won't. Shuit Them Down ,

To Justin:

You sound like someone who has been fortunate enough to never have had to frequent a payday lender, and if so, congratulations. You also sound like someone who loves to throw around loaded words without explaining what you mean by them, and if so, that's too bad. Greed motivates all of us to some extent, and certainly in the market, but that's a good thing because it is what motivates businesses to provide us with stuff we want. If they weren't greedy, they'd only sell what they like, and we'd have to survive on whatever they decided to sell. As for usury, perhaps you'd be so kind as to describe what you mean, and how it applies to extremely short loans of days and weeks, rather than years. Long term loans don't need high interest rates to be profitable, because they can be re-sold, securitized, etc., but extremely short term loans can't do that, so they need to charge a higher interest rate. Administrative costs are also much higher for extremely short term loans. While I agree that Utah Republicans meddle too much in industries that they disagree with, your snarky comment isn't much better.

Come on. You're a poorly-disguised sockpuppet for a payday loan owner....OR are you the store owner yourself?

Payday loan stores are nothing but predatory scammers who prey on the undereducated, unsavvy and those with poor backgrounds.

Pretty proud of yourself, aren't you?

BTW, I've never been inside your business OR one like it.....and I thank my lucky stars that when I was young, I was smarter than the people who YOU PREY ON.

There's no way YOU can be a benefit to God's glory. Look inside yourself, and be ashamed of what you do. You are NOT providing a service to those who need it. If you were, you'd be telling them to stay away from your stores.

Just go away. And if you are a church-goer, you might as well stop. You're an abomination.

It is funny that Joe Hatch is concerned about "predatory lenders" but in the bill he authored he excludes title lenders from zoning restrictions. Title lenders have zero rules on them and should be under the same umbrella as payday lenders.

This is nothing more than back scratching politics by Joe Hatch. D-News, where is the story on that?

Wow! Banning these in school zone and near retirement centers. HURRAY!!!! Government to the rescue! Let's see...I don't think children can enter into binding contracts and the elderly don't have income, so what do the payday guys want with them.

This is nothing more than political grandstanding by the SL County Democrats.

Wednesday's Child - Your comment doesn't seem to make sense, since Jeff Allen is a Republican. What do you mean?

Hypocrite - How is it political back scratching? I'm really curious what you mean by that. Title Loans require collateral. Pay Day Lenders require a "post-dated" check that then either leads to more bank fees or wage garnishment. I agree, they both are shady, but with similar restrictions within the municipalities they are not grouped together.

Wow, you sure guessed right on me - because I refuse to soundly condemn payday loans, I either own a payday loan shop or I am a "sockpuppet" for one (whatever that means)...

Actually, if you must know, I don't know anyone who owns a payday loan shop, and my brother actually works for a company who helps a lot of those who have serious credit problems, some of whom are payday loan customers. I simply have the capacity to think analytically about the subject, and to realize that there are circumstances when payday loans might be the only option for some people in serious financial straits. If there are abuses, punish them, but don't take away the only option some people have, unless you are willing to pony up your own cash to help them out.

Your ridiculous tirade against me, assuming and asserting that I am a payday lender only shows the weakness of your arguments, because you don't bother to address my actual comments, and just begin to call those who disagree with you names. I'm not offended, because I'm actually just an economist and lawyer who believes in the free market, and who pities you.

Limiting access to payday lending only forces consumers to use the other, more costly short-term credit products available, such as overdraft protection, late fees on credit cards and other bill payments and off-shore Internet lending. Instead of limiting options, a better solution is to keep freedom of choice for consumers and encourage competition between businesses.