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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Griego
DATE TYPED 1/25/05
HB
SHORT TITLE
Child Support Enforcement Judgement Changes
SB 191
ANALYST Weber
APPROPRIATION
Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY05
FY06
FY05
FY06
NFI
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Duplicates HB56
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Human Services Department
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
The Human Services Department offers the following analysis.
Senate Bill 191 changes one word in the current Parental Responsibility Act from “brought” to
“enforced.”
Significant Issues
The Human Services Department comments.
The federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of
1996 required every state to implement license suspension and revocation mechanisms. New
Mexico revised its laws in 1997 to meet these federal mandates.
pg_0002
Senate Bill 191 -- Page 2
The current statute 40-5A-3 may infer that the Child Support Enforcement Division (CSED) can
only use the License Suspension tool in child support cases that it has filed with the courts and
not other cases that have been referred to it by both custodial and non-custodial parents. This
amendment changes the wording in statute from “brought” to “enforced” to treat all CSED
customers equally.
CSED uses the license suspension as a tool for child support enforcement. The following
licenses can be referred for suspension:
Drivers Licenses (including commercial and motorcycle permits)
Recreational Licenses (Game and Fish, boating)
Occupational Licenses (Teachers, construction, hair dressers, nursing any profession or
occupation that requires a license)
PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS
The Human Services Department feels the following performance measure may be increased.
Amount of child support collected, in millions of dollars.
The License Suspension tool generates child support collections from cases that are delinquent
and often “gets the attention” of non-custodial parents (NCPs) who ignore or evade other
enforcement efforts. NCPs are given an opportunity to negotiate a lump sum payment and a
payment plan for how they will eliminate their delinquency debt, and when this is accomplished
their licenses are returned to them.
WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL.
The Human Services Department feels CSED will continue to under utilize the license
suspension enforcement remedy and fewer families will receive child support payments on
arrears. Custodial and Non-Custodial parents will continue to receive unequal treatment due to
this unresolved loophole.
MW/lg:yr