The Massachusetts Senate passed a “compromise” version of legislation affecting debt collection practices in Massachusetts, and according to its sponsor, the bill has a shot at final passage thanks to industry representatives collaborating on the rewrite. The bill, which would increase the amount of a person’s paycheck that is protected from wage garnishment and impose a five-year statute of limitations on debt collections, is based on language the Senate passed in 2016 and 2018. Sen. Jamie Eldridge offered “thanks for the debt collectors, their representatives that I often disagree with, but their willingness to come have a seat at the table and work out what is a consensus bill.”
The Marlboro Democrat said he hoped the measure would pass the House and make it to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk, “given that this is a full consensus bill.”
The Senate Ways and Means Committee authored the redraft (S 2713) last week, based on a draft from the Joint Committee on Financial Services (S 2638) co-chaired by Sen. Paul Feeney.
Feeney said the bill would protect the state’s “most vulnerable residents from financial ruin.”
The bill would limit the interest rate on a debt to between 2% and 5%, rather than a current rate of 12%, Eldridge said on the Senate floor. To read more click here.