MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Deadbeat parents might be able to wiggle out of the federal mandate requiring suspension of licenses for failure to pay child support under a Senate bill passed Tuesday.
Federal law requires states to yank licenses issued by the state from any parent who fails to pay court-ordered child support.
The Senate tacked on an amendment, however, that would impose the license revocation only if a court determined the person had the ability to pay child support.
"I think it is important that people prove they have the ability to pay," said John Schneider, D-St. Louis County, author of the amendment. "Revocation should be a last resort."
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Harold Caskey, D-Butler, agreed that license revocation is a serious prospect.
"Anytime that you take a person's license away from them, it becomes draconian," he said. "Other states say that the mere threat of suspending licenses accomplishes the goal."
For example, a similar law was passed in Maine, and while the state suspended fewer than 75 driver's licenses, it increased it's child support collection by $10 million.
The bill, which implements a federal mandate, provides for the revocation of all professional, driver's or recreational licenses held by a person who is three months or $1,000 behind in child support. The amendment moves the decision on revocation from the director of the Child Support Enforcement Division to the courts.
"The state bears the burden of proof," Caskey said. "There will be a basic standard that there was a valid order in place, there was a violation of that order, and that there is a valid reason that the money was not paid."
Schneider said the decision should not be left up to a bureaucrat.
"We need to punish people who aren't paying," he said. "That doesn't mean that everybody should automatically be punished. This is the kind of stuff written by a bureaucrat who just wants to increase child support."
Caskey said he did not think this would allow non-custodial parents to hide assets in order to avoid payment.
"I don't think the courts will buy that," he said. "It will be up to them to draw those lines."
The House approved a bill implementing the federal mandate last week that did not include the measure requiring a court finding on the means and ability of the non-custodial parent to pay. It also set the level of license revocation at three months or $2,000 in arrears. The differences will be worked out in a conference committee.