The Judiciary Committee heard testimony Feb. 3 on a bill intended to improve compliance with child support orders.<\/p>\n
LB488, introduced by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist, would require the state treasurer to publish a list of delinquent child support obligors provided by the state Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n
An obligor would be included on the list if his or her delinquent court-ordered child support exceeds $5,000 or no child support payments were made in the six months immediately preceding publication. The custodial parent must have signed a confidentiality waiver allowing certain case information to be made public.<\/p>\n
The obligor would not be included on the list if involved in bankruptcy proceedings or receiving public assistance.<\/p>\n
Under the bill, the list published would include the:
\n\u2022 name of the child support obligor;
\n\u2022 amount of child support owed, including interest;
\n\u2022 time period of delinquency;
\n\u2022 most recent city of residence of the obligor; and
\n\u2022 contact information for HHS to disclose information that may assist in locating the delinquent child support obligors.<\/p>\n
The bill also would require a child support obligor to reimburse the child support payee should an annual fee be assessed to the payee of child support. The bill would have an estimated one-time cost of $262,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is only meant to target those who are intentionally violating a support order,\u201d Nordquist said.<\/p>\n
For some people, he said, public scrutiny is enough to make them act.<\/p>\n
Lori Tworek, a custodial parent seeking child support, testified in support of the bill.<\/p>\n
The proposed website would tell parents who are delinquent in paying child support that “enough is enough,” Tworek said, and that it is time to take responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cNon-custodial parents are getting off too easy and the state needs to take a tougher stance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Crystal Rhoades, also a custodial parent seeking child support, provided neutral testimony. She said $25 billion in child support goes uncollected nationwide each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents would be less likely to default if they knew that the public was going to see they were being irresponsible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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