In an earlier blog the CAB license renewal deadline was addressed as it is coming on January 31st.  It is very much worth mentioning that each year when the CABs across Texas pay the renewal fee of $800 per location, that $200 of that goes to the Texas Financial Education Endowment Fund (http://www.tfee.texas.gov/).  It appears that 2,125 CAB licenses will be renewed this year and that comes to $425,000 in contributions to the fund!

In years past there have been as many as 3,500 CABs so that would have meant that $700,000 was contributed for that given year.  CABs have been contributing to the fund since the CAB law went into effect in 2012 so 2017 will be the 6th year.  CAB renewals fluctuate but it is safe to say that $2-$3 million has been put in to this fund by Texas Credit Access Businesses.

“The Texas Legislature established the Texas Financial Education Endowment (TFEE) to support statewide financial capability and consumer credit building activities and programs. The endowment is funded through assessments on each credit access businesses and is administered by the Finance Commission of Texas.”

This program is 100% funded by the licensed CAB operators in Texas.  As a group we should all be pleased to make contributions towards the kinds of programs that have been given grants through the fund.

One bit of irony worth mentioning is that many of the programs who have received money from CABs are located in cities where ordinances were passed.  Goodwill Industries has been strongly opposed to our industry however they gladly received $32,000 from us in Austin!  I have personally seen them testify at City Council meetings in support of the ordinance.  Their testimony is typical in that had a very narrow, negative, and uninformed set of talking points.  Not only does Goodwill support the city ordinances but they join the argument that CABs take advantage of low income citizens.  Well in the case of the $32,000 grant, they took money money from low income citizens.  And, the participated in a movement that caused businesses to close (about 1,300 across Texas), people to lose jobs (2 per store would be 2,600 jobs gone), and after all of that the rates in ordinance cities went up 12% because of burdensome regulation.  Less competition hurts the consumer, once again…

For more information on market changes related to ordinances please go to the OCCC’s website and review the MSA reports for the last several years: http://occc.texas.gov/publications/activity-reports#cab

As for the good news – Texas Credit Access Businesses should get more positive attention for the impact they have on programs that do good for others, see below for some of the grant recipients:

K-12 Financial Education & Capability:

Texas Council on Economic Education – $32,000.00

Financial Coaching:

Family Pathfinders Tarrant County – $32,000.00

Community Development Corporation of Brownsville – $32,000.00

Adult Financial Education & Capability:

Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, Inc., Austin – $32,000.00
Easter Seals of Greater Houston, Houston – $32,000.00
Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation, Statewide – $32,000.00
El Paso Credit Union, Inc., El Paso – $25,000.00
Family Service Association of San Antonio, Inc., San Antonio – $32,000.00

This blog post was written by Michael Brown, President of CAB Consulting and the Texas Organization of Financial Service Centers.  He can be reached at 214-293-8676, or Michael@CreditAccessBusiness.com.