Dubuque becomes ninth city to take on payday lenders
In a unanimous vote Tuesday afternoon, the Dubuque City Council passed an ordinance to restrict where new payday lenders can locate.
Dubuque became the ninth city in Iowa to pass an ordinance!
The ordinance, modeled after ordinances passed in Iowa City and Ames, will severely restrict where any new lender can locate within the city.
Karla Braig, Dubuque City Council woman said during the city council meeting on Monday, "I'm proud we're going to add Dubuque [to the list of cities with ordinances]". She also said she hopes Dubuque sends a message to the legislature to "get off their behinds" and do something to crack down on payday lenders. A similar sentiment was stated by other city council members.
The state legislature, not cities, has the authority to regulate interest rates on payday loans, which currently average just under 400% APR. Despite strong grassroots support for interest rate caps, the legislature has failed to bring a bill to the governor’s desk. This leaves cities to address the problem through zoning, with Davenport next on the list of cities poised to take action.
Des Moines was the first city in Iowa to pursue ordinances to control the growth of payday lenders in May of 2010. Since then, the state has seen over a 20% decrease in payday lenders operating in Iowa.CCI members will continue to push for interest rate caps on payday loans at the state level in next year’s legislative session. Until then, CCI vows to pursue all tools, including zoning ordinances, to curb the abusive practices of payday lenders.
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