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A primer on payday proposition

Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Construction
West-Press
Printing

When the Defense Department decided to shield the men and women in America's uniformed military services from the triple-digit interest rates that accompany payday loans, one of its motivations was an overarching concept called "military readiness."

Each branch of the armed forces has made learning to handle money a part of its particular approach to military readiness. The U.S. Air Force, for example, requires first-term airmen to complete a series of courses and lectures on personal financial management. These include such topics as the use of credit, how to buy a car, and how to begin investing.

Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who get themselves into financial binds can sometimes lose their security clearances. At Fort Huachuca, where the Army's intelligence school is located, a soldier who cannot qualify for a security clearance because of personal financial difficulties is pretty much useless. Many such soldiers are released from the service. Fired, in other words.

In October 2006 as part of the Military Authorization Act and at the urging of the military's top brass, Congress made it illegal for payday lenders to charge active duty military personnel and members of their families, an interest rate higher than 36 percent. In contrast, civilians who live in states like Arizona, where payday lending is still legal, can and do pay interest rates that can top 400 percent.

Under its military-readiness doctrines, the Defense Department believes that when a soldier on patrol is distracted by money worries back home, that soldier is not fully focused on the job at hand. In a war zone that job includes avoiding ambushes, protecting fellow soldiers' backs and watching out for roadside bombs.

Arizona employers could learn a lesson from the Pentagon's concerns. If a soldier who is wrestling with money worries is not fully productive on the job, neither is a civilian who is at work for an Arizona employer. If you analyze the issue, more than simple worker productivity is at stake.

How is traffic safety affected by a beleaguered payday loan client who is racing all over town during a lunch break, from payday lender to payday lender, trying to keep the harassing phone calls at bay for another two weeks, all the while driving under pressure to get back to work on time? Distracted employees are dangerous.

How much of an Arizona employer's Workers Compensation premium and workplace accident rate is a result of preoccupied employees neglecting to pay attention to complicated machinery while they mentally juggle payday loan calculations in order to leave enough money in their pockets for food and gas over the coming two weeks? Distracted employees are expensive.

We spend a lot of time, money and effort in Arizona trying to attract new jobs, new employers and new industry. There are dozens of departments, agencies and organizations dedicated to economic development. How much of that effort is undermined because we allow our state to be sapped by the payday-loan industry that corrodes our competitiveness because it drains the vitality of our workforce?

The Pentagon decided it can do without payday lending. So can Arizona. Vote "no" on Proposition 200.