Former Sen. Ron Allen, D-Tooele, now a member of the Public Service Commission, says the perception that few victims exist hurts some bills he sponsored calling for tougher payday lender regulations. He said: "When we had hearings, no victims would show up. Many are working poor and could not take off work to come. Others are likely embarrassed."

He says repeated failure of victims to testify prevented putting "a human face on the problem" and reinforced industry arguments that few people have trouble with the loans.

Ray, the House member from Clearfield, says he also pushed some bills to restrict payday lenders but backed off when he couldn't find many victims. His district includes Hill Air Force Base, which Morning News analysis shows has 28 payday lenders nearby. He said he had heard stories about military members hurt by them.

"But I couldn't find any," he said.

Hilton says victims are real and are seen by many churches she works with as coordinator of the Coalition of Religious Communities. She says she can connect many with lawmakers who want to hear stories — and is using college students to compile a book of their stories to help overcome such criticism.

Debt counseling services also say they see many people driven to severe financial crisis by payday loans. Don Hester, co-owner of the Debt Free Consumer counseling service in Provo, says his records show a 400 percent yearly increase in the number of clients who had payday loan problems — and 15 percent of all clients have some.

When Preston Cochrane, executive director of the AAA Fair Credit Foundation, is asked whether the number of clients with payday loan problems was low, medium or high, he says high.

Well-connected allies

Hilton says a main problem faced by critics of the payday loan industry is that its allies in the financial industry are well-connected.

The financial industry donated nearly $345,000 to legislators in the last election, or $1 of every $8 they raised, Morning News analysis of campaign records show. That was the most of any special interest. Almost every legislator received some money from the industry.

Something else that helped access by payday lenders, Hilton says, was the election of one payday lender to the Legislature. Former Sen. James Evans, R-Rose Park, who is now chairman of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, owns the Check Line, Check Action and Rainbow Check Cashing payday lending businesses.

"He did everything he could to undo all of our work," she said.

She says Evans was able to bring lobbyists for his industry into the back rooms to meet with fellow legislators.