Deadbeat Dads Face Losing Privileges

Parents who fail to pay court-ordered child support are in danger of losing their licenses to do business, drive, carry a gun or even hunt and fish in Idaho.

The House on Wednesday voted 53-17 for legislation described by a sponsor as the centerpiece of Gov. Phil Batt’s welfare reform package. Meridian Republican Rep. Bill Sali said the bill is designed to prod parents into making child-support payments that reduce the need for welfare.

The measure cleared the Senate 26-8 earlier, but must return to that chamber for agreement on House amendments aimed at making it clear that the suspension process would not cover such things as state water rights.

A short time later, the House declined to penalize public officials, including legislators, for failing to pay child support.

A bill providing that a public office would fall vacant if the holder failed to make child-support payments cleared the Senate unanimously. But after a skirmish in the House, an unrecorded voice vote sent it back to the State Affairs Committee, where it will be allowed to die.

State Affairs Chairman Ron Crane said the bill was fatally flawed because it did not adequately define “public official.”