Idaho Gov. Butch Otter this morning declared Idaho’s legislative session “incomplete,” and indicated he’s laying the groundwork to call lawmakers back for a special session before mid-June to address a crisis they created in Idaho’s child-support enforcement system; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com. “I’m not prepared to stand up here today and tell you I’m going to call a special session, because I think there’s a lot of homework to do, in that if we were to have a special session, that we have a successful one,” Otter said. “It’s going to be a very deliberative … process through the stakeholders.”

The first step is sending out 155,000 letters to the 155,000 Idaho families now receiving child support payments from a non-custodial parent, warning them that within 60 days, all non-voluntary payments could end. That’s $174 million of the $205 million in child support payments Idaho Health and Welfare processes each year. “They could stop getting their payments,” said Idaho Health and Welfare spokesman Tom Shanahan. “We’ll still be able to do receipting,” for those parents who are making child-support payments voluntarily. “We’re not going to be able to do enforcement. That’s where the real angst is.”

Health and Welfare Director Dick Armstrong said, “To me, we have a human tragedy that we’re faced with.”