Regulators in Kentucky will have new power to pursue unscrupulous payday lenders starting Friday, as parts of a law passed in March take effect.
The law raises license fees for payday lenders and gives state officials more power to punish lenders who violate laws. In July, the law provides for a statewide database to keep anyone from taking out two simultaneous loans totaling 500 dollars or more.
The Kentucky Coalition for Responsible Lending has fought for tighter restrictions on payday lenders. Coalition attorney Anne Marie Regan says the law doesn’t go far enough, and she would rather see legislation cap payday loan interest rates at 36%.
“This new law does nothing to address the high cost of the lending and also does nothing to address the cycle of debt that people get into with these kind of loans,” she says.
Lenders say they provide tax revenues to states and a vital service to responsible adults, and argue that the average loan is paid off at an interest rate under 20%.
The Indiana Department of Revenue will begin publishing the names and addresses of businesses that haven’t paid sales tax Friday.
The department’s website will feature a list of businesses with expired retail licenses. The licenses are renewed when sales tax is paid to the state.
Department spokesperson Stephanie McFarland says the list may steer consumers away from delinquent businesses, as it’s unlikely a business will appear on the list by mistake.
“They get more than 90 days of notification to be able to get their bill caught up or to call us and get on some appropriate payment arrangements. If they don’t do that, then their certificate expires and if it expires and they’re operating in the state of Indiana, then they’re operating illegally,” she says.
McFarland says the state is missing more than 100 million dollars in unpaid sales taxes. The first list has 27 thousand businesses on it, though McFarland says some of those businesses may have closed in the last year.
It’s the time of year when many people pledge to make positive changes in their lives, such as losing weight, eating healthier foods, giving up smoking or going on a strict budget.
Louisville life coach Stacy Vicari says those who make resolutions for the new year
should try to keep them realistic.
“I think that the best new year’s resolutions are ones that aren’t framed as resolutions, but instead annual goals,” she said.
Vicari says its common for resolutions to be broken early in the new year.
She advises people to set short term goals throughout the year that can be easily measured, such as daily caloric intake for those trying to lose weight.
More information about New Year’s resolutions and ways to stick to them can be found here.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tech Talk
We’re checking in with our tech mavens to see what’s new in technology, and take your questions about the gadgets in your life that are giving you fits. If you got an iPhone for the holidays and can’t figure out how to install the app you want, or if you’re thinking of putting that gift card towards a new camera but you aren’t sure how many megapixels you need – or even what a megapixel is – tune in and let our panel clear things up.
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Louisville is taking another step toward stricter parking enforcement.
In 2010, on-street parking citations will be enforced by Republic Parking Systems. Republic takes over from Lanier Parking, which held the contract to issue parking tickets for five years.
Parking Authority executive administrator Cathy Duncan says Republic’s contract gives the company new power in collecting fees for unpaid parking tickets.
“They will employ the Fair Debt Credit Practice Act, which allows them to do skip tracing, repeated calling/mailing, reporting to the credit bureau,” she says.
Skip tracing is a technique for tracking delinquent parkers who have moved to other states.
The contract change comes after the city instituted a new policy that allows officers to place immobilizing boots on cars with two or more unpaid tickets.
Duncan says there are thousands of delinquent parking tickets in Louisville totaling some eight million dollars.
Despite recent reports of an improving economy, a recent survey says charities faced many difficulties fundraising this holiday season. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer reports.
The news comes in the latest Philanthropic Giving Index, a report prepared by the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University. The report is comparable to the Consumer Confidence Index.
Nonprofits in the survey say they are not faring better than they were a year ago although their expectations that they will do better with future fundraising has increased somewhat.
Adrienne Davis is with the Center for Philanthropy.
“Nonprofits’ overall confidence in the charitable giving climate has risen slightly,” she says, “but is still at record lows for the 11-year history of this study.”
The study also indicates that most fundraisers for nonprofits say they have made changes to how they do business in the past year.
“A majority [of nonprofits] reported that they have put more focus on stewardship and on communicating with their donors,” Davis says. “And they’ve also put greater emphasis on setting organizational priorities and making tough budget decisions.”
Davis says these changes are ones that many donors have requested of nonprofits, especially during the recession.
Over the past two years, several Louisville nonprofits have used many tactics to reduce their budgets, including sharing resources with other organizations.
Davis says attitudes about future fundraising efforts vary according to the type of nonprofit concerned.
“Educational fundraisers and those were more optimistic than most of the rest of their peers and other nonprofit organizations,” she says. “Fundraisers for human services organizations were the least optimistic.”
During this recession human service organizations have seen an increase in demand for their services, putting greater expectations on their staff members and their need for funding.
The Greater Louisville Pride Foundation has put up 17 large murals of famous Louisvillians throughout the city — and it’s getting ready to mount another. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer reports.
The foundation’s Hometown Heroes project began to recognize current or former citizens known for excellence in their fields and first hung an image of Muhammad Ali. Over the years, murals of other notable people have been added to include images of journalist Diane Sawyer, jockey Pat Day, radio journalist Bob Edwards and basketball player Darrell Griffith.
And by April next year, the foundation plans to add an image of New York City Ballet dancer Wendy Whelan to the city’s collection. (The photo is being taken by her husband, photographer David Michalek.)
The foundation’s president, Mike Sheehy, says nearly three years ago he and his colleagues began discussing a mural to honor the internationally acclaimed dancer.
“We feel Wendy, with her career in the ballet, and as an educational thing it’s great to be able to put this up and Wendy’ll maybe be an influence on some young girl or young boy that might want to pursue a career in dance,” he says.
Whelan grew up in Louisville and attended the Brown School downtown, which is were the mural will be hung.
Sheehy says Whelan will be the third artist in the group.
“We’re excited to have her as part of the group,” he says. “And Louisville has a very strong arts community and anything we can do to show that off to our citizens here and also to people visiting the community, we’re all for it.”
The only two other artists now in the collection are sculptor Ed Hamilton and Patrick Henry Hughes, the blind trumpeter in the University of Louisville marching band.
Sheehy says the decision to add an image of Whelan has been in the works for some time.
“We’ve actually been talking about Wendy for several years,” he says. “And we knew of her and what she’s done in New York with the ballet. But we’ve actually talked to her mom and father and then to Wendy herself about it. So, it’s been an ongoing process as much as these murals are.”
Photo: Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall perform with with the dance troupe Morphoses. Photo: Lois Greenfield
