Ohio's 129th General Assembly did utility ratepayers no favors when it took a meat ax to the Office of Consumers' Counsel.

The office represents residential utility customers in rate hearings and the like. It's funded by a minuscule assessment on utilities. Last year, the counsel's budget was $8.5 million -- the equivalent of 74 cents per Ohioan, although not a penny of that came from the state's general revenue fund.

Ohio legislators squeezed that to $5.6 million for this year, $4.1 million for next year -- a reduction of more than 50 percent.

The fig leaf Republicans slapped on this naked anti-consumer attack was a claim that the consumers' counsel duplicated some work of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. But the PUCO is like a court; it's supposed to hear from both sides, not advocate for either.

So when legislators gelded the consumers' counsel, they effectively guaranteed representation to only one side of a rate case -- the utilities' side. That's a level playing field?

And make no mistake: This thinly veiled proxy war on behalf of utilities was launched because the consumers' counsel was effective at reducing utility bills in Ohio.

Statistics requested from the consumers' counsel make plain the consequences for residential ratepayers of the legislature's antics. The number of consumers' counsel employees has fallen by roughly half; the number of lawyers on the agency's staff has plunged from 14 to seven. The office has "mostly eliminated work on federal utility matters" at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; at PJM Interconnection, which runs the utility grid in Ohio and 12 other states; and at the Federal Communications Commission.

The consumers' counsel is also rudderless: Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander resigned after the budget salvo hit home and has yet to be replaced. The agency says it's still searching for a new leader.

Next year, in judging candidates for the General Assembly, utility ratepayers should consider who is, or isn't, on their side.

An informed Ohio voter is a term limit no Statehouse incumbent can duck.