Nevada payday loan ballot initiative dead after supporters stop getting signatures

A proposed ballot initiative to limit high-interest lending in Nevada has failed after supporters failed to gather enough signatures, but elements of the effort could be introduced during next year’s legislative session.

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In January, a nonprofit called Stop Predatory Lending NV filed an initiative petition that called for a ballot question creating a 36 percent cap on the interest rates for certain types of high-interest loans, including title and payday loans, which are short-term loans where individuals typically receive immediate cash and agree to pay back the loan shortly after with high interest rates.

Supporters had until Nov. 20 to gather 102,362 signatures for the initiative to go up for a vote in the Legislature next year, with at least 25,591 signatures needing to come from each of the state’s four congressional districts. If the Legislature did not pass or act on the measure, it would have been placed on the 2026 general election ballot.

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However, proponents decided to not spend money on signature-gathering efforts because of uncertainty surrounding whether the initiative would survive in court, according to Peter Koltak, a Democratic consultant and the spokesperson for Stop Predatory Lending NV. He added that the group plans to refile the petition in January 2026, and that certain aspects of the plan might be proposed during the 2025 legislative session.

The nonprofit has reported raising $440,000 this year, all during the first half of the year. It has spent more than $350,000, mostly on consulting.

The decision to abandon signature-gathering efforts came as the Nevada Supreme Court took months to weigh the initiative’s legality. A group of lending companies sued to block the initiative earlier this year on the grounds that it was too broad for a ballot initiative and misled voters. 

The suit failed in district court, but the companies appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court in late April. A decision was not issued until Thursday, when the high court dismissed the case as moot because enough signatures had not been collected by Nov. 20. Had the court reversed and ruled the initiative to be unconstitutional, any signatures gathered up to that point would be invalidated.

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The initiative would have upended the high-interest lending industry in Nevada. It is regulated by the state’s Financial Institutions Division, but the state has no cap on the interest rates that can be attached to a loan.

A report in June 2023 from The Center for Responsible Lending — a nonprofit that opposes high-interest lending — found that the average interest rate for Nevada payday loans was 548 percent, the fifth-highest rate in the country. A payday loan database established by the state indicates that between 30,000 and 35,000 high-interest loans are taken out each month.

This was the second initiative petition filed by Stop Predatory Lending NV this year. In January, the group filed a petition that would have placed the 36 percent interest rate cap on high-interest loans, while also increasing how much money from a person’s bank account and weekly wages is protected from a seizure for an unpaid debt.

A Carson City judge and the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the initiative was too broad and could not move forward, so the nonprofit pivoted to the narrower petition.