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Commissioners challenge federal cuts to child support services
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Friday, December 9, 2005 10:22 AM EST
CORUNNA - A plan brewing in Washington, D.C., that would reduce funding for child support services in Michigan and other states is for deadbeats, as far as the Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners is concerned.
The board Thursday approved a resolution opposing federal legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives that proposes cuts to child protective services.
Susan Thorman, Director of the Shiawassee County Friend of the Court and president of the Michigan Friend of the Court Association, said those cuts would leave her office short-staffed and make it difficult to track down parents who fail to pay child support.
“These cuts will cost Shiawassee County, over a five-year period, $1 million - and that's just the beginning,” said Thorman. “The scary thing is that this is just the first swipe at our program but I'm afraid they'll keep coming back and asking for cuts every year.”
At $1.5 billion, Michigan is the fourth-highest collector of child support in the nation, according to Thorman. Approximately $10 million in child support is collected in Shiawassee County each year.
The motion to oppose the legislation was made by commissioner Kim Van Pelt.
“The Friend of the Court does so much and their services are so important I feel anybody who should be paying child support needs to be and to cut the funding to our Friend of the Court would make enforcement very difficult,” Van Pelt said.
The U.S. House approved the cuts, part of the Deficit Reduction Act aimed at saving the federal government $50 billion, in November.
The plan would reduce government spending, in part, by cutting the percentage the federal government pays for each state's child support administrative costs by 4 percent each year for four years. Federal funds currently pay 66 percent, so the plan would result in an even 50 percent match.
Sage Eastman, spokesman for Dave Camp's office, said the cuts hopefully will encourage state child support administrators to look at creative ways to reduce costs in their own programs without reducing services.
“What Congress has said is that we need to find a better way to administer the program... the hope is to find a way for state and county to interact and consolidate services and reduce duplication.”
Press secretary for Mike Rogers' office Silvia Warner said between 1999 and 2003 administrative costs for child support went up 29 percent nationally while case loads went down 8 percent. Given that, she said, there is room for trimming the fat.
“With Congressman Rogers, the most important thing is that the system remain effective for those families who need it, but at the same time, we have to be efficient,” said Thorman.
But Thorman said proponents of the cuts are not considering that Michigan families will inevitably suffer if funding for child support services is cut.
“They don't realize how these cuts will hurt the families we work with,” said Thorman. “They are another family on welfare, another family that needs a food basket.”