*State Veterans Legislative Update 18 April 2016: We need your help again

Subject for use on the Email to be forwarded:  We need your help again

 

SB 1316 S/E is scheduled for a hearing in a Senate Caucus tomorrow 19 April before a Senate Committee of the Whole (COW and final vote before the end of this Legislative Session later this week or next week in hope for sending it to the Governor for signature possibly next week, 

 

On 28 March, with your help, we urged our Senators to oppose Predatory Lending Bill SB 1316 S/E in Caucus on 29 March. However, it received a “Concurrence recommended” on the morning of 29 March without the time for the Caucus ever being posted and with no readings or discussion, as was much the same for some 30 other bills that were run through the process in about an hour. And as usual in a Caucus, there is no record of a vote or what Senators supported that decision. 

 

Please consider sending the draft message at the end of this Email to all Arizona Senators ASAP this evening or early tomorrow per the instructions shown below. And if you don’t get it sent tonight or tomorrow, please do so ASAP afterwards because it will be coming up at any time for the  final vote per the instructions shown below

 

My recommended message (below) builds significantly on the 28 March message to again remind our Senators of our concerns, and to hopefully trigger those that didn’t read our earlier message(s).

 

Again I am using a new Subject: “We need your help again” for the message to be forwarded to hopefully preclude some Pro-SB 1316 Senators from deleting the Email even before glancing at it, as was the case with several of them who received our 22 March Email and seeing the SB 1316 Subject line. You may use a different Subject line, or just use SB 1316 at your discretion. And different subject lines from some of us may help get the message through.

 

Email addresses with Semi-colons for all members of the Arizona Senate:

[email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected];

 

Senate Addresses With Commas:                                                                                                              

 

[email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected],  [email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected][email protected],

 

 

               You might want to print this Email now to have the instructions below 

                                     available to facilitate using this process.

Guidance for processing and sending your Email.

When you are ready to forward the Message at the end of this text to all members of the Senate:

 

  1. Click on “Forward”from this message so that the attachment will be included with the message that will then be ready for final processing for sending. (Note: Clicking on “Forward” doesn’t send the message. It only sets it up to complete the processes below before hitting “Send”).
  2. Then delete the Subject line of the new message, and copy: ’ We need your help again ‘ here or at the beginning of the text of this Email and paste it on the Subject line.
  3. Edit the message that appears just below the blue line below if desired, and enter your name (and retired Rank if you are a Military Retiree) after the word ‘Respectfully‘ before the NOTE: at  end of the message. Enter your address if desired, but that might tend to make the Representatives or their staff to delete your message if you are not a constituent before they read at least the first paragraph in the message. Consider just adding something like ”Concerned Arizona Veteran” after your name and rank.  If you are a constituent of one of the Senators, in addition to sending this Email to all Senate Members, please consider calling your Senator’s office with your concerns. Go to or click on www.azleg.govhere. At that site, click on Senate and then on Members on the drop down menu) to find their phone numbers.
  4. Copy Email addresses with Semi-colons for all members of the Arizona Senate:above (high light the addresses of all 30 members and then hit ‘Ctrl’ and ‘C’ simultaneously), and paste it on the Bcc: line (put your cursor on the Bcc: line above and then hit ‘Ctrl’ and ‘V’ simultaneously.

NOTE:

If you have problems with your system not allowing so many address at one time, break the group down into two groups for use in sending the message to those two groups.

And if your system rejects the use of Semi-colons separating the addresses, follow the above process using the group of addresses separated by Commas as shown above.

  1. Now High Light the blue line shown below (place your curser just below the blue line) and sweep upward acrosseverything above it.
  2. Then hit “Delete” on your keyboard . That will leave just the Draft Message that now appearsbelow the blue line as the text of your new Email.
  3. 7.Then when you feel comfortable that you have completed all the steps correctly, and have added your  name at the end of the message, you can hit “Send” to send your Email.

 

Draft Message

 

 

Dear Senator,

 

SB 1316 S/E is on the Senate Caucus Calendar for 19 April with a possible final vote later this this week or next week in an attempt to get it to the Governor for signing. Please don’t let us see you as a supporter of this still usurious predatory lending Bill.

 

As you may recall, 17% interest per month (204% annual percentage rate – APR) results in over $10,000 in payments on a $2,500 loan over the 2 year term of the loan, and results in over $2,000 in payments on a $500 loan over 2 years. These are unconscionable under any circumstance, regardless of what the predatory lending industry and their lobbyists try to tell us their perceived need is for such loans.

 

Senator Yee defied political correctness and voted her conscious on 10 February to defeat SB 1447 which was the predecessor to the SB 1316 Strike Everything (S/E) predatory lending bill. I urge you to stand up to the predatory lenders and their lobbyists and vote your conscience against SB 1316 S/E that got through the House in a very partisan manner. It is not a partisan issue and shouldn’t be treated as such. And there are already other options available for help during times of urgent financial needs. They include, for examples, charitable organizations like the St. Vincent DePaul Society, Veteran organizations such as VFW Posts and the Boots for Our Troops Foundation, and the AZ Department of Veterans’ Services Military Family Relief Fund (MFRF) available for Post 9/11 Veterans.

 

Please stand with Senator Kinberly Yee and Senator Gail Griffin and other Republicans and Democrat colleagues in nonpartisan voting against the SB 1316 S/E predatory lending bill.

 

Don’t let your name appear as a YES on SB 1316 S/E along with those who have been so adversely influenced by the powerful predatory lending industry lobbyists over the past couple of months. Senator Kimberly Yee, who voted her conscience, withstood targeting by the predatory lending industry and their lobbyists saying that she did not support new business and was anti-free enterprise when you and her constituents and others know that is not so.

 

Please stand up to the predatory Lending industry lobbyists and vote your conscience to let your name appear as a NO on SB 1316S/E. Show Veterans across the state and your constituents where you stand in protecting the financially vulnerable among us from the usurious predatory lending industry.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

 

NOTE: Page 2 of the attached is a typical amortization table for a $2500 loan at 204% annual percentage rate (APR) interest.

 

If you are curious as to how amortization schedules are developed and maybe interested in how to easily apply them yourself to better understand the various SB 1316 S/E loan options, you can click on: http://www.webmath.com/amort.html (or copy and paste it in your browser). At that site you can easily produce an amortization spread sheet (typically called an Amortization Table) for any size loan by inserting the following loan details in the respective boxes at that location

  1. What is the amount of the loan? (e.g. $2500);  
  2. What is the duration of the loan? (in years)? (e.g. 2);  
  3. How many payments per yearare there? (e.g. 12 and note, that is payments per year, not the total number of payments over the term of the loan);  
  4. 4What is the annual interest rate (in a percentage)? (e.g. 204%annual percentage rate,not the 17% interest per month rate);
  5. andWhat extra amount can you afford to pay each month? You can leave that block blank or enter ‘0’ until later when you might like to do some experimenting to see the impact of increasing the initial monthly principle payment for various options that the predatory lending industry doesn’t want anyone to know about.

Then click on: “Show me the loan payment schedule” at the bottom of the screen to see the monthly payment details at the next screen.

 

There the details are displayed on a monthly basis  over the term of the loan and includes the total principle and interest paid as of each monthly loan payment over the term of the loan. And at the first monthly payment line, under ”Payment to Principle”, it shows the minimal first month principle payment that is automatically set to maximize the total interest paid over the term of a standard loan when systematically amortized over the term of the loan. INCREASING that initial minimal principle payment will result in early pay off of the loan and less interest received by the lender. And while the http://www.webmath.com/amort.html  does not enable you to DECREASE the minimal principle payment, doing so results in a large final payment and more interest received by the lender. And as a suggestion, after completing the process for any proposed predatory lending rate check out that same loan at 36% APR, the max allowed under Federal Law, to compare it with the usurious nature of the predatory lending industry business model interest rates.

 

Those amortization tables are designed to automatically set a low initial month principle payment to appear as a benefit to the borrower to keep their monthly loan payments to a minimum; e.g., starting at a $10.05 principle payment plus $425 Interest on a 17% interest per month (204% APR)  $2500 loan to set the monthly loan payment at $435.05 that remains constant over the 2 year term of the loan, and starting at $2.01 principle payment plus $85.00 Interest on a $500 loan to set the monthly loan payment at $87.01 that remains constant over the 2 year term of the loan. However, in reality this maximizes the interest paid over the 2 year term of a loan (over $7,900 on a $2,500 loan and nearly $!,600 on a $500 loan).

 

To see what would happen if you were to increase that initial month principle payment you can use the process above on a $2500 loan over 2 years and enter, for example, $10.00 in the ”What extra amount can you afford each month?” block. That essentially doubles what the automated initial month principle payment ($10.05) would have been to reveal the impact on total interest paid over the term of the loan. You will see that the total interest paid over the term of the loan would be reduced from $7941.15 to $6294.07 (a $1647 loss to the lender) with payoff of the loan after 20 months. It’s all part of their predatory lending industry business model to automatically set that minimal first month’s principle payment to establish a fixed monthly loan payment amount that maximize the interest payment over the normal term of a standard loan. And with that business model you can be assured that lenders won’t encourage higher initial principle payments or early pay off of a loan.