Beshear pledges support for payday lender cap despite fund-raiser

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear said Wednesday that he remains committed to stricter regulation of payday lenders even though his re-election campaign held a fund-raiser last week at the Tennessee home of a payday lending executive who does business in Kentucky.

Beshear said he was not reluctant to hold the fund-raiser at the Cookeville, Tenn., home of Garry McNabb, chief executive officer of Cash Express, which has more than 100 outlets in Kentucky. It also is registered to lobby the executive and legislative branches in Kentucky.

The Democratic governor, who is seeking re-election in 2011, said McNabb was one of several hosts of the event.

Several consumer advocates who have pushed for more restrictions on payday lenders — which can charge upward of 400 percent interest — have expressed concern about the fund-raiser.

Beshear, who was a lobbyist for the payday lending industry in 1998, said he still supports legislation to cap the annual interest rates payday lenders can charge at 36 percent — the amount Congress has implemented for military families.

The industry claims a cap on payday advances would drive lenders from the state and deprive families of access to emergency credit, increasing bounced checks and bankruptcies.

“We are going to move forward to creating further and stronger regulations, capping interest rates” in next year’s legislative session, Beshear said.

Beshear’s comments to reporters came after a ceremony in the Rotunda to recognize public service.

He also said he has talked to Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo about anonymous, edited recordings on the Internet in which Mongiardo is heard sharply criticizing Beshear.

Beshear said the tapings “are part of the political shenanigans that go on in a campaign. We understand that.”

Beshear is supporting Mongiardo in next May’s Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate.

Beshear noted that when he ran for governor in 2007 an opponent “photoshopped” his face on the image of a gambler.

“This is to be expected in these kinds of things,” Beshear said, adding that Mongiardo has “done an extremely good job as my lieutenant governor.”

“We both decided we are not going to allow whatever pops up in these kinds of things, campaigns, to drive a wedge between us.”

Asked if Mongiardo had denied making the comments on the tapings, Beshear said it’s obvious “they have been doctored and patched together.”

Mongiardo’s campaign has said the tapings have been edited. The campaign of Jack Conway, Mongiardo’s chief rival in the Democratic primary, has said Mongiardo should explain the tapings.

Beshear said he did not know why Mongiardo did not show up Wednesday morning at a news conference with him on the University of Kentucky campus. The governor’s office said Tuesday Mongiardo would be present.

Mongiardo spokesman Kim Geveden said the lieutenant governor was in Chicago for a fund-raiser.

- Jack Brammer

Filed Under: Daniel Mongiardo • Elections • Jack Conway • State Government • Steve Beshear • US Senate Race