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Deadbeat Dads

JEFFERSON CITY - Deadbeat dads would have to hang up their fishing poles under a bill passed by the Missouri House Tuesday.

The bill, which implements a federal mandate, provide for the revocation of all professional, driver's, and recreational licenses held by a person who is three months or $2,000 behind in child support.

House Children Committee Chairman Pat Dougherty, D-St. Louis, the sponsor of the legislation, said he sees the measure as primarily a threat to get people to pay up.

"This is a hammer in the toolbox," he said.

Dougherty said other states have implemented this type of legislation with tremendous success. For example, Maine suspended fewer than 75 licenses in the first year after it passed a similar law, but increased its child support collection by $10 million.

Of the $1 billion in annual child-support court orders, only $300 million is actually paid, according to the state's Child Support Enforcement Division.

The state hopes to double the amount paid in three years with the measures in the bill, said Teresa Kaiser, director of the Child Support Enforcement Division.

"The suspension of driver's licenses is a wonderful motivator," she said. "As sad as it is, there are many people who can pay who choose not to. I don't care why they pay, just that they do. I don't really want their license. I want their child support."

Dougherty said anyone who receives notification that their license is going to be suspended has several options.

"Licenses will be suspended only for those who refuse to set up a plan for payment," he said. The person in arrears also has the option of a hearing or to go to court to challenge the Child Support Enforcement Division.

One amendment to the bill approved by the House lowered from $500 to $150 the maximum fine that could be assessed against a business that refused to hire a person under a child-support order.

"Current law already has many penalties in place for businesses," said Rep. Vicki Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, the sponsor of the amendment. "The penalties didn't need to be as high as $500 in addition to all of the other things employers have to handle."