COLUMBUS: During eight days in March, including a weekend, Ohio lawmakers introduced, held committee hearings and called the roll on the House and Senate floor to complete work on a bill to spend almost $6 billion on capital projects.

A month earlier, lawmakers used a little more than three weeks to move legislation through the process to address optical scan ballot problems for voters.

The fact is, when they want to, our state lawmakers can find common ground and resolve problems rather quickly.

More than a year ago, state Sen. Ray Miller, D-Columbus, introduced legislation to address the usurious payday lending problem in Ohio.

In October, three Ohio House bills were unveiled on the subject.

State Reps. Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, and Robert Hagan, D-Youngstown, have sponsored a measure that would cap interest rates on the loans at 36 percent instead of the 391 percent currently assessed on an annual basis.

This idea mirrors federal law that curbs the interest rate charged to military.

Ross McGregor, a Republican from Springfield, and Matt Lundy, a freshman Democrat from Elyria, are pushing the cash-checking industry's bill, which would not cap interest rates, but would improve public education efforts and extend loan periods for financially troubled customers.

State Rep. Tyrone Yates, R-Cincinnati, has introduced a death knell bill for the industry by limiting interest rates to 25 percent.

For six months, these bills have languished in the legislature while the payday industry continues to grow.

Last year, Policy Matters Ohio and the Housing Research and Advocacy Center issued a report that demonstrated the number of payday lending locations increased from 107 in 1996 to 1,562 in 2006.

Last week, the groups updated their data to show 76 more check-cashing storefronts opened in 2007, bringing the total to 1,638.

At the same time the research was being promoted, a coalition of big city mayors, including Akron's Don Plusquellic, announced support for the Batchelder/Hagan bill and called on the legislature to pass the reforms.

In a tightly coordinated effort by the 241-member Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending, the mayors released a statement, with each leader explaining their city's ranking and outlining the problems payday lenders are creating in their respective communities.

Plusquellic noted that Summit County is fifth highest in the state, with 68 check-cashing storefronts.

''The high interest rate payday lenders charge is a net drain on our families and our communities,'' Plusquellic said. ''We've seen from the mortgage meltdown that when families are trapped in debt, the economy as a whole suffers. In Akron, we've made too much progress to let payday lending jeopardize our potential. A rate cap would open the market to fair lending alternatives; those kinds of businesses would be welcomed.''

The legislature may be
slow to act, but other communities have addressed payday lending.

Cuyahoga Falls prohibits payday lending storefronts from being within 10,000 feet of each other. Maple Heights, near Cleveland, has voted to limit the number of cash-checking stores in its community.

Meanwhile, the lethargic legislature has yet to vote on any bill, although the choices — cap, coddle or kill the industry — are clear and have not changed for more than six months.

Considering the stalemate, it is not coincidental that Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann also announced last week that he will hold a third public hearing on payday lending in Columbus on April 9.

Dann has already listened to testimony about excessive fees, high interest rates, collection methods and the need for stiffer regulations from people in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

He places witnesses under oath so they are sworn to tell the truth. It's a vastly different environment from the cozy confines of the legislature's hearing room, where to date witnesses are not vowing to tell the truth and no one has been bold enough to call for a show of hands one way or the other.