Backers of a bid to ask voters to outlaw title loans have quit amid the inability to raise the cash they need to get it — and keep it — on the November ballot.

Rodd McLeod, campaign consultant for Arizonans for Fair Lending, said the refusal of federal courts to void a law on petition signatures has raised the costs to beyond the point that supporters are willing to fund. And without the money, he told Capitol Media Services, it makes no sense to keep gathering signatures.

The initiative sought to ask voters to remove the exemption that the industry now has from a state law which limits allowable interest to no more than 36% a year.

But McLeod said that the law, enacted in 2014 by by the Republican-controlled Legislature, actually requires circulators to gather far more than that as a cushion against signatures being disqualified. Читать далее →