Sandy Patano of the North Idaho Political Action PAC spotlights the embarrassing action taken by some North Idaho legislators that almost caused the state to lose the ability to enforce child support payments:

Last year, during the 2015 session, an Idaho House Committee killed legislation to collect child support for Idaho kids, causing Governor Otter to call Idaho’s elected officials back to Boise in mid-May for a rare special session to address this critical issue. The Idaho Senate passed SB1067 before the regular session ended but without a vote from the House — the bill died.

Without passage of this critical legislation, Idaho would have lost $46 million in federal child support funds plus systems and databases that allow Idaho to work cooperatively with other states and internationally to track down delinquent parents — for the most part, deadbeat dads.

During the special session, legislators met for 12 hours of committee hearings and floor debate on May 18, 2015, before passing HB 1 — guaranteeing 416,000 parents, children and other guardians’ receipt of their monthly child support payments — as ordered by the courts.

Vocal North Idaho Representatives Heather Scott, Kathy Sims, Don Cheatham, Vito Barbieri and Brent Regan (substituting for Steve Vick) formed a “Paranoid, Fear-Mongering Club” if you will, leading the opposition to kill the legislation — fighting harder for delinquent parents than Idaho’s children. All are on record raising people’s suspicions about what “might” happen if the bill was adopted. Luke Malek, Mary Souza, Shawn Keough and Bob Nonini voted along with the majority of Idaho legislators for final passage of the bill — making sure Idaho kids come first, not pandering to untruthful arguments.

Question: Again ... Scott and Barbieri and Sims, oh my. Tell your friends that these three have (mis)represented North Idaho for way too long. (But they have performed well in represented the Idaho Freedom Foundation and their secret cabal of high rollers.) Thoughts?

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