Web May Ensnare Deadbeats Bill Would List On Internet Parents Who Owe Child Support

Fri., Feb. 6, 1998

Hunter T. George Associated Press

Those Old West-style “wanted” posters have found their place in the Information Age.

A Senate committee on Thursday discussed a bill that would authorize state welfare officials to post the names and photographs of parents who are far behind in child-support payments in a place for all to see - the World Wide Web.

Half of the states already advertise their deadbeat parents on the Web in hopes of embarrassing some into compliance and just locating others. They feature flashy headlines, such as “WANTED: Texas Child Support Evaders” and “WANTED: California’s Most Wanted Nonsupporting Parents.”

Sen. Lorraine Wojahn, a Tacoma Democrat who’s sponsoring Senate Bill 6660, said her proposal is an appropriate follow-up to last year’s landmark welfare law, which authorized the state to suspend licenses of people who are at least six months in arrears.

An official with the state Division of Child Support, which collects and distributes payments in Washington, said the agency would use the Web to publicize “the worst of the worst” if the bill passes.

“We continue to increase collections every year, but we could always use a new tool,” Elizabeth Morgan, the division’s policy manager, told the Senate Health and Long-Term Care Committee.

Morgan said the division would establish criteria on who would be eligible to be profiled on a Web site. She noted that California puts people on its Web page who are at least $8,000 in arrears, and only if the custodial parent agrees.

The bill has bipartisan support, and only one senator voiced any concern during the hearing: “It sounds like Big Brother to me,” said Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, who also questioned how much it would cost.

Legislative staff said a draft analysis estimates the bill would cost the state $190,000. Morgan said the mere threat of having someone’s name posted in such an embarrassing fashion would prompt more people to pay up, which would enable the program to pay for itself at some point.

That’s been the case with the new license-suspension program to date.

The Division of Child Support has suspended 43 licenses since November, including 10 on Thursday, according to Walter Moy, the division’s license-suspension coordinator.

In all but two cases, the state chose to suspend driver’s licenses. The others were a liquor license for a tavern owner, who later agreed to pay up, and a contractor’s license.

Moy said the license-suspension program has helped increase child-support collections, although he couldn’t provide figures yet because analysts were still calculating the difference.

xxxx On the Net The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services’ Web site offers links to states that feature “most wanted” pages. It can be found at www.state.nh.us/dhhs/dhs/nhchildsupport/csmwusmap.htm

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