By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
An organizer of a campaign to rein in title loans is telling a federal judge that Arizonans won’t get to decide the issue in November unless she blocks enforcement of a law on how initiative signatures are disqualified – and soon.
In a sworn affidavit, Tomas Robles of Living United for Change in Arizona said the law in question has left backers of the proposal to cap interest rates on title loans unable to get the financial commitments needed to hire the necessary paid circulators.
“That is both because the law exponentially increases the already substantial costs of pursuing an initiative and effectively narrows the reach of the message by limiting the pool of circulators we can use to successfully gather signatures,” Robles told U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton. A member of the steering committee of Arizonans for Fair Lending, he said efforts to put the issue to voters in November will cease unless she enjoins the law by no later than the end of the month.
