STATE LAWMAKERS HOPE TO IMPROVE MISSOURI'S CHILD-SUPPORT RECORD

Deadbeat parents who don't pay their child support could lose their licenses to drive, hunt, fish and work.

The Missouri House and Senate recently gave first-round approval to bills that mirror federal mandates to improve child-support enforcement.

Companies could be fined $150 for firing or refusing to hire a non-custodial parent to avoid the hassle of withholding the person's wages for child support.

Mothers who apply for welfare would have to identify the fathers of their children to aid in the state's efforts to collect child support.

Employers would have to provide information regarding employees in an effort to track down deadbeat parents and ensure national enforcement of Missouri child-support orders.

Lawmakers voiced support for the tougher measures, but added that they had little choice but to approve them.

Missouri must comply by July 1 with the federal mandate approved by Congress last year or risk losing at least $66.5 million in federal matching funds for child-support enforcement and millions more in block grants.

The Clinton administration and Congress have pushed for tougher child-support enforcement in recent years.

In fiscal year 1996, the federal and state governments collected $11.8 billion from non-custodial parents, an increase of $4 billion or nearly 50 percent since 1992, according to the federal child-support enforcement office.

But Missouri officials say collecting child support remains a tough task.

Missouri collected $279.3 million in child-support money in fiscal 1996, which ended June 30.

But that is less than a third of the amount owed, said Teresa Kaiser, head of the Missouri Division of Child Support Enforcement.

"We don't put children first as a society. It is sad," she said.

"It is estimated that if everyone who owes child support paid it, the welfare roles would be cut by one-third to one-half," Kaiser said.

State officials hope the new enforcement weapons would help the state collect about $500 million to $600 million a year in child support.

House Speaker Steve Gaw, D-Moberly, said just the threat of a driver's license suspension may prompt more parents to pay the child-support money they owe.

Child-support investigator Kelly Hartmann agreed. "Who wants to lose their driver's license?"

Hartmann works as a child-support investigator in the Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney's office.

In 1996, 225 paternity and enforcement cases were filed in Cape Girardeau County, she said.

"You have to legally establish paternity in order to have an order for child support," said Hartmann.

The state can't take away a deadbeat lawyer's license to practice law. Congress exempted lawyers from such a suspension, said Missouri's House Majority Floor Leader Gracia Backer, D-New Bloomfield.

But the state could take away his or her licenses to drive, hunt or fish, she said.

Both Gaw and Backer dislike the exemption for lawyers. But they said state lawmakers can't change federal law.

Kaiser said slight differences in the Missouri House and Senate bills remain to be ironed out.

She said no one likes federal mandates. "I don't like to be blackmailed," said Kaiser.

But she said her agency doesn't want to lose the federal dollars that pay much of the $90 million a year spent on child-support enforcement in Missouri.

States are allowed some options when it comes to the tougher enforcement tools, Kaiser said.

The Missouri House included a provision that gives the state the option to restrict a non-paying parent's driving privileges rather than revoke the license entirely.

Lawmakers said parents can't support their children if they can't get to work.

"Ninety percent of the folks who owe support right now are dads," Kaiser said.

Child-support enforcement officials and lawmakers believe the enforcement tools will work.

Congress took the best practices of all the states in its efforts to improve child-support enforcement, Kaiser said.

State Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, welcomed the enforcement tools.

"It is pretty severe, but sometimes we need to be aggressive in providing funds for children," she said.

"We need to save taxpayers' money," Kasten said. "We are supporting the kids that parents ought to support."

State Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, said the state should do everything it can to see that parents pay their child support.

That would lessen the welfare burden, he said. A lot of mothers end up on welfare because the fathers haven't paid child support, Schwab said.

But Schwab and other lawmakers also want to improve visitation rights for non-custodial parents.

He said several fathers have complained to him about the difficulty of securing visits with their children.

"Over the years, the courts have leaned toward the mother," Schwab said. "We need to look at that."