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SPONSOR: |
Saavedra |
DATE TYPED: |
|
HB |
536a/HJC/aSJC |
||
SHORT TITLE: |
Child Support Payments as Unclaimed Property |
SB |
|
||||
|
ANALYST: |
Weber |
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REVENUE
Estimated Revenue |
Subsequent Years Impact |
Recurring or
Non-Rec |
Fund Affected |
|
FY03 |
FY04 |
|
|
|
|
|
See
Narrative |
Recurring |
Federal |
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Revenue Decreases)
Near duplicate to SB427.
Responses
Received From
Human
Services Department
SUMMARY
Synopsis of SJC
Amendment
The Senate Judiciary Committee made the following
changes to House Bill 536:
1.
Strike item 2 of House Judiciary Committee
amendment. Item number two of HJC
amendment is:
On page 7, line 17,
after "law" strike the remainder of the line, strike lines
8 and 19, insert in lieu thereof
"; and" and insert a new subsection:
“(5) Adopt regulations for the
disposition of unclaimed child, spousal or
medical support payments.".
2. On page 7, line 17,
after, "law" strike the remainder of the line, strike lines
18 and 19, insert in lieu thereof
"; and" and insert a new paragraph:
"(5) adopt regulations for
the disposition of unclaimed child, spousal or
medical support payments.".
It
appears the only change is substituting the word subsection for paragraph.
Synopsis
of HJC Amendment
The House Judiciary Committee amendment makes one
technical adjustment that strikes “and” on page 7, line 10 that would make (3)
and (4) independent rather than coupled.
Also on page 7, line 17 the new section is omitted and following a new
section (5) added. It states: “(5) Adopt
regulations for the disposition of unclaimed child, spousal or medical support
payments,”.
Synopsis
of Original Bill
HB 536 amends sections of
the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act to exempt from its provisions child,
spousal, or medical support collected by the Human Services Department’s (HSD)
Child Support Enforcement Division (CSED).
HB 536 would add a provision under the Single State Agency Section (
Significant
Issues
The enactment of HB 536 would bring HSD
into conformance with Federal regulations (CFR 304.50, as interpreted in OCSE
Action Transmittal 89-12 and subsequent Policy Information Questions 97-02 and
99-02) that require state IV-D programs to utilize unclaimed child support
disbursements as program income and deduct the same from the amount claimed
under program expenditures.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
If
HB 536 is not enacted, there is a risk of loss of Federal revenue. An estimate of $199,868 per year of
undisbursed and suspended collections will become unclaimed property. This amount would become eligible to fund the
CSED program; however, the additional revenue would be offset by the same
amount that would be subtracted from CSED administrative costs eligible for
claiming at the Federal participation rate.
ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS
HSD
would have to promulgate regulations for implementing HB 536. Accounting systems would have to be modified
to account for the reversion of funds to CSED, and adjustments to Federal
reporting would be necessary.
DUPLICATION
HB
536 is nearly an identical duplication with SB 427. HSD considers the language in HB 536 to be
slightly clearer.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
The
language in SB 536 added under 27-2-27.A. (4) implies, by its placement in this
paragraph, that unclaimed property only pertains to “non-aid” families. Actually, unclaimed property may have been
paid on behalf of families on assistance.
SB 536 Section 27-2-27.A (4) (new numbering) could be left as is. A new paragraph of HB 536, 27-2-27.A. (5)
could be added stating: “adopting regulations for the disposition of unclaimed
payments.” This would remedy the
implication that unclaimed property only exists for non-assistance cases.
MW/prr/njw