At its meeting two weeks ago, the Dallas City Council passed a resolution urging the state Legislature to crackdown on payday lenders and "to pass any necessary legislation to protect the citizens of the State of Texas who may find themselves with no alternative but to seek the type of short-term, high-interest, unregulated loans offered by credit service organizations." The kind of legislation, say, proposed by state Sen. Royce West, whose SB251 would severely limit the definition of a "credit service organization."

Which is how city council member Jerry Allen found himself yesterday in front of the Senate Committee on Business & Commerce, pleading with the state senators to protect the "long-term financial health of our Dallas citizens."

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