A group of payday loan companies complains that it’s being ignored by the sponsor of a bill to regulate the industry.

“We would have liked for them to negotiate with us instead of just blowing us off,” said Bob Wolfberg, president of the Illinois Small Loan Association. Wolfberg said an amended version of the bill, released late Friday, took none of the group’s suggestions except for some minor, technical ones. […]

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. David Miller (D-Dolton), said he’s frustrated by trying to satisfy the small-lender group, which has held up reform legislation in the past.

“It’s been a moving target to make ISLA happy,” Miller said. “My impression is they just want to delay and don’t want the bill at all.”

Not mentioned in the story is how the committee’s chairman, Rep. Mike Boland, has been running interference for ISLA and the title loan companies, and completely ignored the wishes of the bill’s own sponsor, Rep. Miller (no relation), while trying to highjack the issue for himself.

Miller has worked on this bill for four years. Boland jumped into the fray two weeks ago and essentially threatened to kill Miller’s bill and sponsor his own legislation, which would have placated ISLA - the group that now complains about being “blown off” but adamantly refused to negotiate with the consumer groups during those four long years.

Meanwhile, the House Republicans are promulgating the interesting spin that the interest rates established by Miller’s bill are way too high - even though Miller’s measure would lower the statewide average rate by about 20 percent. Proponents believe that the objection is designed to kill the bill on ISLA’s behalf by making it completely unpalatable to the entire industry, not genuinely strengthen it.