Ohio lawmakers should make it easier for citizens to get out of debt, a researcher said.
Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, submitted testimony to an Ohio Senate committee on the policies in Senate Bill 112, which clarifies restrictions on debt settlement companies that could make it more difficult for Ohioans to get out of debt.
A PDF of the testimony is available here.
The bill, titled “Regards debt adjusting,” is available here. The sponsor is State Sen. John Eklund (R-OH-18), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles criminal, civil and commercial law.
Lawson’s testimony came Wednesday before the Senate Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee meeting, which held its second hearing on the matter.
The research fellow outlined the challenge facing many Ohioans, who, on average, have “$5,583 in credit card debt, according to a story by Debt.org. This is more than 10 percent of the median household income, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Lawson also highlighted that Ohio’s regulations and laws make it “harder for many [Ohioans] to reduce and settle their outstanding debts.”
Currently, Ohio’s arbitrary fee caps and poorly tailored law makes it harder for some debt settlement firms to operate here, which, in turn, makes it harder for many of your constituents to reduce and settle their outstanding debts.
He urged the committee to not make it harder for Ohioans to find services that can help them get out of debt, noting that “Ohio regulates this industry above and beyond the federal rules, muddies the regulatory waters, and thus makes it harder for settlement firms to serve clients who might need their services.”
The issue is crucial.
Consumer debt in the U.S. has grown by 25 percent in five years and doubled since the turn of the century, according to the latest Clever Real Estate report, according to a story by The Ohio Star. Researchers identified three major reasons for skyrocketing debt: credit cards, financial literacy, and location, based on data analyzed by the Federal Reserve.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
