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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.

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