Bill Suspending Licenses Of Parents Goes To Senate

Suspending all licenses of parents who don’t pay child support or comply with visitation orders is a good idea, lawmakers said Thursday.

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted unanimously to send that legislation, a piece of Idaho’s welfare reform package, to the full Senate. The committee also moved along another piece of the package, which would punish anyone who helped a parent avoid child support payments.

Judy Brooks, state welfare administrator, cited Maine’s success with a similar licensing law. In the first three years the law was in effect, $26 million in back child support was collected. Only 46 licenses actually were suspended.

Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d’Alene, said she supports the bill. For some parents, she said, this legislation is their last resort for collecting much-needed support money.

Under the bill, Idaho parents who are either three months or $2,000 behind in their payments or who refuse to comply with visitation orders would be notified of the suspension process.

If the parent didn’t shape up within 21 days, all licenses, including driver’s, professional, and hunting and fishing licenses, would be suspended until payment arrangements were made.

The committee, including Reed, Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden, and Sen. Clyde Boatright, R-Rathdrum, voted unanimously to send the bill to the Senate floor.

The other bill approved by the committee Thursday would make aiding and abetting someone in non-payment of child support a crime.

This would apply to anyone who tries to help a parent keep assets hidden from welfare agencies, employers who pay under the table, business associates who hold assets in false names, or new spouses who keep funds in a separate or maiden name.

That measure, too, won the committee’s unanimous support.

, DataTimes