The latest effort to move state interchange provisions forward hit a road block last week in the Pennsylvania State Legislature. Lawmakers passed their state budget without any of the interchange provisions that credit unions fought to exclude, then adjourned for the summer. The introduced bill would have excluded interchange from being applied to the state sales tax.
America’s Credit Unions, Leagues, and credit unions strongly oppose changes to the interchange fee calculation to benefit big box retailers and continue to fight any proposals at the state and federal level.
The CrossState Credit Union Association and Pennsylvania credit unions worked to stop the bill, helping send more the 30,000 messages in opposition to Pennsylvania lawmakers.
CrossState Credit Union Association President/CEO—and American Association of Credit Union Leagues Chair–Patrick Conway joined other state financial services organizations in writing an op-ed in The Patriot-News while the interchange bill was considered, and CrossState Senior Vice President of Government Relations Christina Mihalik appeared on Voices of Reason, a show covering current state political topics.
The Pennsylvania legislature is set to reconvene in September, and the interchange fee bill that previously made its way through the Pennsylvania House Finance Committee remains stalled in the House Rules Committee.
Interchange related legislation was also considered in the Massachusetts House when lawmakers introduced provisions in its Economic Development bill to create a special commission to study, among other things, sales transactions by credit card and the impact of those transactions on small businesses located in the state. While the state Senate companion bill did not include those provisions, the Cooperative Credit Union Association and America’s Credit Unions continues to monitor closely for updates.
The actions in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts follow the Illinois legislature end-of-session move to pass the nation’s first bill to limit state interchange, incorporating the language into its state budget bill.
