Ohio rejects casino, OKs lending limit

Voters passed Issues 1, 2, 3 and 5 and defeated Issue 6.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio voters on Tuesday rejected a proposed $600 million casino, the fourth time plans for expanded gambling in the state have been turned down since 1990.

Voters approved a new payday lending law that cuts the annual percentage rate that lenders can charge to 28 percent and limits the number of loans customers can take to four per year. It is among the strictest laws in the country.

In early unofficial returns, the gambling issue was defeated 62 percent to 38 percent. Support for the payday lending law was at 66 percent.

“Ohio voters stripped payday lenders of their permit to fleece working people,” Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and treasurer of the group working in favor of the issue, said in a statement.

Supporters of Issue 6 bet that voters would think more about Ohio’s economic problems than their previous opposition to casinos and gambling. The state has lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs since 1990 and in August recorded its highest unemployment rate in 16 years at 7.4 percent.

The measure was rejected by 55 percent of Mahoning County voters in complete but unofficial voting, 56 percent in Trumbull County and 69 percent in Columbiana.

MyOhioNow.com, a group of Cleveland-area developers backing the proposal, said the resort would create up to 5,000 jobs in an area of the state that stands to lose 10,000 jobs at an air park in Wilmington and an auto plant near Dayton.

The campaign said all 88 counties would share casino money, promoted as $211 million a year, and that it would draw Ohioans who now have to travel to surrounding states to visit casinos.

A “yes” vote on Issue 5 upheld the law. Voting “no” rejected the limits and cap on interest rates, allowing lenders to charge rates and fees that amount to a 391 percent annual percentage rate.

Mahoning County voters wanted to uphold the law by a 59 percent margin, Trumbull by 57 percent and Columbiana by 60 percent.

Ohioans for Financial Freedom say the new law would force payday lending businesses across the state to shut down and as many as 6,000 people to be laid off.

Backers of the law say such loans are defective products that trap borrowers into a cycle of debt. Borrowers typically end up with 12 or more loans each year, according to the committee backing the proposal.

Voters also easily passed the other three state issues, with each getting at least 69 percent of the vote.

Issue 2 allows the state to issue bonds to pay for conservation of natural open spaces and the environmental revitalization of other lands.

Mahoning County voters approved the measure by 66 percent, Trumbull by 68 percent and Columbiana by 63 percent .

The other two initiatives were proposed constitutional amendments.

Issue 3 strengthens landowners’ rights to make “reasonable use” of water that runs on or through a property. Mahoning County voters approved it by 68 percent, Trumbull by 73 percent and Columbiana by 71 percent.

Issue 1 requires an earlier filing deadline for statewide ballot issues.

Mahoning County voters approved it by 68 percent, Trumbull by 67 percent and Columbiana by 61 percent.