Thursday evening, January 12, the Executive Committee of the United Media Guild unanimously endorsed two ballot initiatives currently in the petition stage as they work their way towards the November ballot.
The first ballot initiative is being promoted by Missourians for Responsible Lending and its efforts to cap interest rates in Missouri at 36%. Right now, payday lenders in this state are charging an average interest rate of 444% and can legally charge as much as 1900%!!
This is loansharking and to pretend otherwise is reprehensible. It may also interest you to know that we currently have more payday lenders in Missouri than Starbucks, Walmart’s and McDonald’s COMBINED!
To learn more about payday lending, visit: http://www.moresponsiblelending.org/
The second ballot initiative calls for raising the MO state minimum wage by one dollar. Almost half a million Missouri families would get a raise through this initiative – pumping many millions into our state’s economy. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimates that for every $1 raise for a minimum wage worker, there is $3,500 in new spending in the next year. Most of our minimum wage workers are employed by major profitable corporations like McDonalds, Walmart and Sodexho that already pay these wages in other states.
To learn more about this issue, visit: givemoaraise.org