Apparently, I have a reputation for being hard on politicians.

So I thought I’d send a belated valentine to our state senators for having the gumption to cobble together a compromise on payday lending regulation.

It took courage.

I know because I experienced the industry’s wrath last year when I called for a state ban on “evil” payday lending.

It is, it turns out, an American right to get into hock up to your eyeballs, even when there’s a substantial risk that you’ll never get out from under.

Some people took special exception to my faith-based contention that usurious lending was immoral, and irresponsible borrowing was simply wrong and didn’t need to be promoted or protected by government.

No one should interfere with free choices, my critics yelped. Especially do-gooders!

(To which I respond again: Why bother with any laws where one willingly agrees to be exploited or harmed. Prostitution? Drugs? Yeah, baby!)

Even though I called on lawmakers last year to take a stand, I really wasn’t expecting any action.

So I spat my coffee halfway across the room when I read an Associated Press story about the state Senate’s passage of some proposed legislation this week.

It would:

n limit borrowers to $500, or a fourth a customer’s bi-weekly income

n force borrowers to pay with cash or check and wait seven days after paying off one loan to take out another

n create a database of outstanding loans to prevent the lending of more than one loan to borrowers

I was sad that Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, wanted to go on the record this week as opposing the bill because of the database’s privacy implications.

As a vocal Christian, I thought he missed an opportunity to remind our supposedly religious state that it is our duty to help protect the weak and the vulnerable.

When it comes to so-called “emergency loans,” our state’s effective 391 percent annual interest rate is, no matter the cliché, legalized extortion in many cases.

Not every payday loan customer is poor, ignorant, helpless or caught in an unending debt cycle, for sure.

But I still find it obscene that our government is complicit in allowing the exploitation of the financial insecurity of a growing swath of American families, rather than doing something to help people earn living wages.

Obviously, I’m not celebrating yet.

There’s a long way to go before this becomes law.

So you might want to call your state representatives again.

They need your encouragement — and your promised vote — if they’re going to face down the well-oiled and well-financed payday lending lobbying machine in an election year.