This week, on the same day PUCO-regulated utilities resumed shutting off Ohioans' power, Senators Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard) and Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) voted to let debt settlers rip off Ohio families.
"We're frankly horrified by the actions of Senators Kunze, Dolan, and every Republican who voted for this bill," said Millie Vaughan, Executive Director for the Ohio Senate Democrats.
"Families are trying to survive a pandemic. Ohio's Republican supermajority should be protecting Ohio families, not making them more susceptible to exploitation."
Despite Ohio's ongoing COVID crisis, Senators Kunze, Dolan, and other Republican members of the Ohio Senate Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee on Tuesday voted to pass SB 112 out of committee.
SB 112 guts the Ohio Debt Adjuster’s Act, which regulates for-profit debt settlement companies.
Per the nonpartisan think tank Policy Matters Ohio, "investigations from both Republican and Democratic led federal and state consumer protection agencies have shown that [debt settlement companies] take advantage of people in bad financial circumstances."
Senators Kunze (suburban Columbus) and Dolan (suburban Cleveland) currently hold two of Ohio's most flippable Senate seats.
Their opponents, Crystal Lett and Tom Jackson, respectively, are strongly positioned to win these seats in November and help restore some balance to Ohio's Statehouse.