DaytonDailyNews.com

The payday lending industry has decided that, by hook or crook, it's going to overturn a new state law outlawing it from charging exorbitant interest rates. It really thinks that if it spends enough money peddling enough lies that people will support having a "choice" to be ripped off.

That's the theme of its campaign: You deserve the "choice" to decide whether to pay $45 to borrow $300 for two weeks; the politicians shouldn't take away your "choice" to pay through the nose because you know what's good for you.

Ohio has been treated to some ridiculously offensive ads in its time, but, if the payday folks get enough signatures to get their "choice" plan on the ballot, things could hit a new low this fall. Already "Ohioans for Financial Freedom" are on the airwaves with two commercials that are stunning in their presentation of the "choice" voters may be asked to make.

Trotting out a worried mother and a salt-of-the-earth farmer (the latter image is a seriously offensive caricature) who are short on cash, the commercials suggest that without payday lenders, families will be left financially high and dry when they need an emergency loan.

But here's the thing: There are alternatives to payday lenders. Credit unions, for instance, and even some banks will make short-term loans for much more reasonable rates. Moreover, since the new law restricting the payday industry was passed — and in anticipation of its effective date Sept. 1— payday lenders are lining up to apply to offer new loan products at much reduced rates. (One estimate is that 1,000 operators have filed the paperwork.)

In short, the suggestion that short-term credit is going to dry up in the state is simply not true.

The fine points of the situation, and how the new law will change things, are not fine at all:

After Sept. 1, short-term loans simply would be capped at 28 percent on an annualized basis, versus the 391 percent that can be charged now. Borrowers would pay $18 for a two-week $300 loan, not $45.

Last week, authorities gave the payday industry a break. They said that the language that would go on the ballot for voters to consider — if the group gets enough signatures — will not say that the payday backers want to charge a 391 percent annual percentage rate. They said that would be misleading, considering that the loans aren't designed to be for a year.

That's true. But when lawmakers looked into the payday businesses' practices, they found that many customers were being encouraged to take out loan after loan because high fees were trapping them in debt. So-called short-term agreements were really leading to long-term financial ruin, what with the average customer signing up for 10 to 13 loans a year.

The payday folks have every right to take their cause to the people. But they underestimate Ohioans' ability to recognize a bad deal. Just because some people have been taken in during the last decade of the payday industry's phenomenal growth in the state doesn't mean they can sucker us all.