As your GRC Government Relations Liaison, I am working overtime to keep pace with our NPA State Bill Tracking service. Just this week 300 bills were flagged by our keyword list for my review, and bills were sent to 17 states.  

• Firearms is always a hot topic with much attention to legislation requiring their safe storage. 
• Minimum wage at 1-1/3 times regular rate for essential business employees working remotely. 
• Rate caps in 2 or 3 states. 
• Hawaii ‘takes the cake’ with House & Senate bills

Hawaii legislators filed bills, disguised as bicycle theft recovery, requiring pawnbrokers to electronically report using whatever system(s) each local law enforcement separately selects, including pictures of customers and items pawned or sold, fingerprints, etc. All of which will then be placed on a publicly accessible website for anyone to view.  

Our customers’ privacy rights are virtually ‘out the window,’ no indemnification from liability for the pawnbrokers, and it’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping every day of the week on that website.  

NPA battled alongside our Hawaii members and the Hawaii Pawn Association to defeat a similar proposal in 2014. A conference committee was to be convened to reach a viable solution for all, but it never materialized. 

So, eight years later here we go again. These bills were located on NPA’s State Bill Tracking system at the same time as our member Richard Dan learned of it in Hawaii. It did not take us long to circle the wagons as House and Senate committee hearings were slated for this week.  

Why this is important for Pawnbrokers…