No state agency is taking a bigger hit in Governor John Kasich’s proposed budget than the one that advocates on behalf of Ohio’s 4.5 million residential utility customers in rate hike cases. The budget for the Ohio Consumers Counsel is being cut by 50 percent, going from 8.5 million dollars to 4.1 million.
Consumers Counsel Janine Migden Ostrander says if the cut stands, she’ll have to lay off 50 of the 75 people who work in her office, and she’ll have to make hard decisions about the role it will play in rate cases.
"Right now we are the watch dog," Migden-Ostrander says. "We are there in all the cases. We’re watching what the utilities spend. We are there to make sure that they don’t misuse public money—which is the money from the ratepayers, consumers, and that will greatly be impacted."
The governor’s office has said the budget cut reflects that the many of the functions of the OCC are performed by state regulators with the Public Utilities Commission. But Migden-Ostrander says that’s not the case, and that since her budget comes from fees on utilities – not from taxes – the cut doesn’t help with the state’s budget problem.