Politics: More important than child support? No!

NIPAC’s weekly column seeks to inform citizens how their legislators vote on key issues. While researching these articles over the last few months, we have detected a pattern of legislators who consistently break from the majority of representatives in the state. We know legislating is not an easy activity and strongly embrace a robust debate of issues.

History shows neither Congress nor state legislatures are likely to tackle many controversial issues in an election year. So, in addition to reporting votes from this year’s session from January through March, we report on previous votes cast since their election to public office. One of the credible ways of evaluating a legislator’s performance is looking at their record.

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.

Unfortunately, enforcement tools are critical in the collection of these payments because only a small percentage of parents voluntarily make these required payments. Without access to the federal tools to track down these delinquent payers, Idaho would’ve been on its own — making collection impossible. Without passage of this legislation, Idaho risked becoming a haven for deadbeat parents.

Opposition to the legislation came from a small group of legislators who viewed the legislation as unconstitutional and a threat to state sovereignty despite the evidence supplied by state and federal officials, and the Idaho Attorney General’s office. Twenty-eight other states had already passed legislation to comply with federal regulations and an international treaty.

Part of Welfare Reform laws passed in 1995 was the recognition that Idaho needed to collect child support payments from delinquent parents and hold them accountable for the care of their own kids. By doing so, Idaho would reduce the need for welfare among poor families.

Most of North Idaho’s legislators were outspoken in their opposition to this legislation. And, while they had dialogue with some constituents about their concerns, there didn’t appear to be many conversations with single parents who were about to lose their child support payments.

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.

One in four (155,000) Idaho children receive financial support from an absent parent. During 2014, Idaho collected $205 million in child support payments, $28 million of that from outside the state.

Gov. Butch Otter, Idaho Health and Welfare, and the Idaho Legislature made an informed, rational, and responsible decision to save taxpayer money and help Idaho’s kids and families by collecting what belongs to them.

Here’s how your legislators voted:

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Sandy Patano is a member of Republican North Idaho Political Action Committee (Republican NIPAC or NIPAC): “Protecting Individual Freedom, Promoting Individual Responsibility: Our mission is to help rational, dedicated, problem-solving people get elected to public office — by motivating citizens to register, affiliate, and vote in the upcoming primary elections.”