Highlights and News

Mar 4, 2010

Payday lending bill faces first test on Monday

We at the Bell have been working for several years to reform payday lending in Colorado. We can talk about the problem in terms of interest rates and fees, the average number of loans or the prevalence of same-day-as-payoff loans. Yes, we know the numbers and all the statistics.

But we never forget the real reason we are trying to change this law: These loans are predatory products, and they hurt people. And it's not just the borrowers who get hurt – the rest of us pay a price and our economy suffers when people are deprived of the opportunity to succeed.

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Mar 3, 2010

Farewell to friend, former board member Al Meiklejohn

We were deeply saddened to hear today of the passing of our good friend and former Bell Action Network board member Al Meiklejohn.

At 86, Al lived a long and very meaningful life, as anyone who reads his obituary in today's Denver Post will realize.

Al joined the board of the Bell Action Network in 2004 and helped guide our work on fiscal issues, including TABOR reform and our work in favor of Referendum C & D in 2005. He served two terms on our board, ending in 2008.

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Feb 18, 2010

Sign up now to join effort to reform payday lending

The Bell is part of a coalition that is working to reform payday lending in Colorado. Payday lenders came to Colorado in 2000 and got a special deal from state lawmakers so that they could operate above the state's usury limit.

They use that loophole to charge fees equal to 521% APR, and many hard-working Coloradans find themselves trapped in a cycle of dept. In 2007, the average borrower paid $573 to take out a $354 loan.

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Feb 5, 2010

Colorado and California: Are they ungovernable?

Last year, Colorado and the rest of the nation watched the fiscal situation in California as if it were a slow-motion train wreck. The Bell, for one, pointed out that Colorado, with its many budget formulas and restrictions, is distressingly similar to California on budget matters.

That exact topic will be the subject of a forum, Ungovernable States: Prospects for Constitutional Reform in California and Colorado, sponsored by the University of Colorado's School of Public Affairs.

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Feb 3, 2010

Flagship universities lag in serving low-income students

According to a recent report, our nation's flagship public universities are not doing enough to serve academically qualified low-income and minority students. In Opportunity Adrift: Our Flagship Universities Are Straying From Their Public Mission, the Education Trust examines the patterns of access and success for minority and low-income students in public research institutions across the United States.

On access, the analysis finds that:

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