The first step toward what could be the fourth issue on Ohio's statewide ballot this fall was taken yesterday.

The REJECT House Bill 545 Committee submitted 2,920 signatures from 23 counties in the state to seek a referendum on a measure cracking down on payday loans.

The move came exactly a week after Gov. Ted Strickland signed a payday-lending law that will eliminate an exception for short-term, high-interest lenders that allows them to charge a 391 percent annual interest rate ($15 per $100 on a two-week loan). The new ceiling would be 28 percent.

"Consumers should be afforded credit choices, and we plan to mount a meaningful campaign to stop this anti-consumer choice, job-threatening legislation," said the committee's spokeswoman, Kim Norris, who was a spokeswoman for former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro.

The group plans to submit 241,365 valid signatures by the Aug. 31 deadline to prevent the legislation from taking effect until after the Nov. 4 election. The petition drive can get started once its language is OK'd and at least 1,000 of the initial signatures validated.

Also possibly headed for the fall ballot: a $400 million bond issue to reauthorize the Clean Ohio program, a proposed constitutional amendment to allow a casino along I-71 near Wilmington in Clinton County and an "initiated statute" that would require employers with at least 25 workers to grant at least five sick days a year.

-- Darrel Rowland drowland@dispatch.com