Name: Michigan senator sponsors bills to help pawn shops, which support his campaigns
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Michigan senator sponsors bills to help pawn shops, which support his campaigns

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Share This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutNo Michigan lawmaker has sponsored more bills to help pawn shops — or received more campaign cash from the industry.A link has been sent to your friend's email address.A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Join the ConversationTo find out more about Facebook commenting please read theWelcome to our new and improved comments.This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.You will need to register before adding a comment.Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.Please be polite.It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.If you see comments in violation of our , please report them.CLOSELANSING — No Michigan lawmaker has sponsored more bills helpful to the pawn shop industry than state Sen. Peter Lucido.And no Michigan lawmaker has collected more campaign cash from pawn brokers — who are not ranked among Michigan's major political donors — than Lucido, a Shelby Township Republican now running for Macomb County prosecutor.Since 2016, pawn shop owners and managers have given just over $17,000 to Lucido's House and Senate campaign committees. That's more than half of the total amount — just over $32,000 — pawn shop owners and managers have given to all&nbsp;campaign committees registered with the state of Michigan, according to a Free Press analysis of state campaign finance data. A pawn shop owner has also donated $1,000 to Lucido's campaign for county prosecutor, bringing his total amount received to just over $18,000.But Lucido, who in 2018 got pawn brokers what he said was their first rate increase&nbsp;in 100 years and this year&nbsp;is working on getting them a second one amid near-record unemployment resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, said there is no quid pro, only mutual respect.The message is the same from Mark Aubrey, president of the Michigan Pawn Brokers Association and one of two owners of Motor City Pawnbrokers who have combined to give Lucido about $7,500 in campaign cash since 2016."He's a good guy and he's one of the few that actually understands the pawn industry," Aubrey told the Free Press on Wednesday. "He understands the hardships, he understands what we go through, he understands the business, which is a plus," said Aubrey, whose business has four locations around Detroit."A lot of pawn brokers appreciate that about him," and, "I'm sure when it comes time for his fundraisers, a lot of those pawn brokers show up."Also, "if you look at the bigger picture, I think he's helping the consumer more than us," Aubrey said.A bill Lucido sponsored, signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Snyder in 2018, tripled the storage fee pawn shops can charge for the pawned goods they hold&nbsp;— which is on top of the interest they charge for the money they loan — to $3 a month, up from $1 a month.This year, Lucido is trying to help pawn shops again.He is the sponsor of&nbsp;a bill, already&nbsp;passed by the Senate and now in the House, that would increase the interest rate pawn shops can charge from 3% per&nbsp;month (36% per year) to 4% per month (48% per year).Lucido, who &nbsp; is also the sponsor of two other bills that would allow pistols to be pawned.The proposed increased interest&nbsp;charges&nbsp;are working their way through the Legislature as Michiganders who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus could feel compelled to pawn valuable items to make ends meet.In pushing for the interest rate increase under Lucido's Senate Bill 369, Lucido and Aubrey, &nbsp;last&nbsp;Oct. 22, appeared to forget about Lucido's 2018 legislation&nbsp;— or that Michigan pawn brokers even charge a monthly storage fee.Lucido told the committee Michigan's 3% monthly interest rate for pawn brokers is the lowest in the country.New York has a 4% monthly interest rate, "but they also charge a monthly fee," Lucido testified. "That's not the case here."Aubrey reinforced Lucido's testimony, telling state Sen. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, that if she pawned a gold necklace&nbsp;worth $1,000, she would be loaned $1,000 and&nbsp;have to pay $1,030 to get the jewelry back, after 30 days.Lucido and Aubrey gave committee members a handout that showed Michigan pawn loan rates as "3% per month," while listing New York as "4% per month plus fees," Ohio as "5% per month plus fees," and other states with higher percentage&nbsp;rates and unspecified fees.The handout suggested, incorrectly, that Michigan pawn shops do not charge fees, which&nbsp;vary widely from state to state, as do interest rates. Aubrey told the committee that New York pawn brokers can charge a $5 monthly fee on top of the 4% monthly interest rate. He told the Free Press that some pawn shop loans in California have interest rates as low as 2%, but that much higher fees charged in California more than offset any savings from interest.In front of the committee, neither Lucido nor Aubrey mentioned , which became law as a result of Lucido's House Bill 4887 of 2018. In addition to clarifying rules about police placing "holds" on pawn shop items suspected of being stolen, the legislation increased the monthly storage fee a pawn shop may charge&nbsp;to $3, up from $1.Though $3 a month is small in the context of a $1,000 loan, Lucido and Aubrey testified that the average loan amount at metro Detroit pawn shops is about $100. On a $100 loan, a $3 monthly storage fee&nbsp;doubles the effective monthly interest rate to 6% (74% per year), which would go to 7% (84% per year) with Lucido's proposed interest rate increase.Asked Wednesday about his testimony, Aubrey said he should have told Johnson the cost of her loan would be $33, not $30.Lucido said he doesn't recall telling the committee members that Michigan pawn shops do not charge fees.Aside from failing to mention the storage fee, Aubrey appeared to misstate the amount of the loan Johnson would receive.&nbsp;Pawn brokers, who make a significant portion&nbsp;of their revenues from the sale of unclaimed goods, rarely loan the full&nbsp;value of a pawned item.Aubrey told the Free Press&nbsp;the relationship between the value of an item and how much it can be pawned for varies from one pawn shop to another, with some loaning close to the full value of an item, others 50%, and others about one-third of the value, or less.With gold, Aubrey&nbsp;said he loans 90% of the melted metal value. Asked whether he should have told Johnson she would receive a $900 loan for her $1,000 piece of gold jewelry, Aubrey said he wanted to use round numbers in his testimony&nbsp;to keep things simple.Aubrey and a co-owner of Motor City Pawnbrokers have given $12,625 to state candidates since 2016, of which $7,475 went to Lucido.Aubrey and Lucido told the committee that only a minority of pawn shop owners, such as Aubrey, follow the state law that allows them to charge only 3% interest, plus storage fees.Most pawn shops are "buyback" operations that circumvent state law by telling a customer they will buy their item for $100 and then sell it back to them in 30 days, for maybe $125, or more. These operators are charging interest rates far in excess of what the law allows, and increasing the interest rate might persuade more of them to operate lawfully, Aubrey said.Under the present law, "it's really, really hard to make ends meet and pay our bills," Aubrey said. "The cost of living goes up every year."Lucido, who said he represented pawn shops as an attorney before he was elected to the Legislature and took a case to the Michigan Court of Appeals, said he does not consider the amounts of campaign cash he has received from the pawn shop industry to be a significant sum of money."This was never&nbsp;— nor will I ever be given&nbsp;— a this for that," Lucido said."They like the fact that I understand the business."Lucido said that when constituents came to him during the pandemic and said they were strapped for cash because they had been unable to access their unemployment insurance checks through a Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency plagued with problems, he recommended to them that they take items of value to a pawn shop."I said, 'if you have something to pawn, that's the only way you're going to do it, unless you have a rich uncle or aunt,' " Lucido said.Aubrey said that pawn shop loans are down about 50% during the pandemic, because many people who normally live paycheck to paycheck have been receiving federal stimulus checks and $600 per week federal supplements to unemployment insurance benefits.That could change as the $600 payments are discontinue, or as unemployment continues, he said.Lucido's interest rate legislation continued to advance Tuesday when a House bill that is "tie-barred" to his Senate bill&nbsp;— meaning both must pass in order for either to become law&nbsp;— was approved&nbsp;by the Senate Regulatory Reform Committee in a 5-2 vote, with one senator abstaining.State Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, who abstained from voting Wednesday, said he supported Lucido's bill in October, after being told Michigan's pawn shop interest rates are the lowest in the country.But he did not feel comfortable supporting the companion bill during the pandemic, Moss said. "This is not my legislative priority."Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.&nbsp;Follow him on Twitter .&nbsp; and sign up for our .&nbsp;&nbsp;The Free Press asked candidates up and down the ballot for their positions on a host of issues. Enter your address to see what the candidates on your Aug. 4 ballot had to say. Because the districts that these candidates run in can be very specific, you will only see an accurate ballot if you enter your full address. Your information, address and e-mail address if you enter one, will not be shared.Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/07/30/senator-peter-lucido-pawn-shops-campaign-donations/5534066002/to help improve our site experience!More Stories

Share This Story!Let friends in your social network know what you are reading aboutNo Michigan lawmaker has sponsored more bills to help pawn shops — or received more campaign cash from the industry.A link has been sent to your friend's email address.A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Join the ConversationTo find out more about Facebook commenting please read theWelcome to our new and improved comments.This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.You will need to register before adding a comment.Typed...

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Michigan senator sponsors bills to help pawn shops, which support his campaigns

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