Lawmakers should send a message to abusive lenders that Florida will not tolerate exploitation of its people.

State lawmakers are running out of time to rescue thousands of Floridians the Legislature unwittingly threw to the sharks four years ago.

In the chaotic final moments of the 1995 session, lawmakers approved letting businesses lend small amounts of money in exchange for car titles - and charge 22 percent in interest and fees each month.

That's 264 percent a year in a state that limits banks and credit-card companies to charging 18 percent interest.
And for the past four years, businesses have sprung up all over the state to take advantage of that outrageous opportunity.

Meanwhile, people down on their luck have been putting up their car titles, falling down a black hole of debt and, in many cases, losing their only means of getting to work to pay off that debt.

It's wrong, and everyone knows that it's wrong.

Everyone, it seems, except an unsavory group of politicians who are in the hip pocket of the businesses taking advantage of the Legislature's lapse of judgment.

Repeated attempts in the past few years to correct the problem have fallen victim to two potent forces:

• Politicians who in the most recent election cycle, directly or indirectly, received at least $168,000 in contributions from the very businesses that are resisting regulation.
• An army of well-connected lobbyists, including two former speakers of the Florida House of Representatives.

This year, though, things are different. That army of lobbyists bumped into the U.S. Navy, which said, "Enough."

Sailors had been victimized once too often by those loan sharks, and the Navy - like most Floridians - wants it stopped.

That message resonated like reveille in the ears of House Speaker John Thrasher, in whose district the Navy has a significant presence. The House immediately passed a reform bill 115-0, which would bring car-title lending rates down to the 30 percent that consumer-finance companies can charge - and would protect local communities' right to set lower limits.

In the Senate, however, industry lackeys have insisted on charging a still-outrageous 96 percent a year.

What is going on here?

Are the people crying out for triple-digit loans? Does state government exist to protect businesses that prey on Floridians?

Of course not. Governor Jeb Bush said it quite eloquently in his inaugural address: "Let the capacity of our courage and caring be the measure by which we are judged.''

Well, Floridians are looking for some of that courage and caring, and it has not been forthcoming - not from the governor, who has refused to step forward on this issue, and not yet from the Senate.

With two days left in this year's scheduled legislative session, Mr. Bush and those in the Legislature who truly do care, and have the courage to stand up for what's right, should end the nightmare of 1995.

They should send a message to abusive lenders of all stripes that this state will not tolerate exploitation of its people.

They should make clear that Florida is an unhealthy environment for loan sharks.