9,351 stimulus checks seized
9/18/08 | 7 comments

9,351 stimulus checks seized


By Mal Leary
Capitol News Service

AUGUSTA, Maine — Nearly all of the approximately 600,000 Mainers who qualified for a federal stimulus check have received their money — except the thousands who were unpleasantly surprised with a notice their payment had been seized by the state.

“We were surprised and pleased at the number of stimulus checks that went to families,” said Barbara Van Burgel, director of the state Bureau of Family Independence. “This is an important additional avenue that we can help families get the money to support their children.”

She had estimated earlier this year that the state would get about $1.5 million by seizing the stimulus checks being sent to Mainers. But as of this week, the state has seized 9,351 payments, which brought in $5,384,893 in past due child support.

“That is significant, particularly to those that are getting money they were owed and were not sure when they would get it,” Van Burgel said.

But even with the additional collections, it is small compared to the state’s overall child support enforcement effort. Van Burgel said last year the state collected $110 million from parents who owed child support to about 65,000 custodial parents.

She said one reason the program to seize checks for past due child support is yielding more than originally estimated is the federal requirement that a person file an income tax return to get a stimulus payment. She said many low-income Mainers do not bother to file a tax return because they have no tax liability.

Van Burgel stressed that the collection of past due child support is crucial to those parents who have custody of children. She said in these tough economic times, with high energy bills, she is happy the parents are getting a little extra help.

“It is one of the ways that families stay above the poverty line, and we know they are struggling,” she said.

Van Burgel said some custodial parents have called and expressed surprise when they received the money from the so-called stimulus “offset” program. She hopes the program will help a few more families before it ends.

As of this week, 113 million Americans have received stimulus payments totaling more than $92 billion. The Internal Revenue Service will continue to send checks to those who file their returns by Oct. 15, and the state will continue to seize the payments for child support and for back taxes.

Jerome Gerard, acting executive director of Maine Revenue Services, said that as of last week, the agency has seized 2,051 stimulus payments totaling $1,070,544 to pay state taxes that were due. He said the revenue being collected through the offsetting of stimulus payments is small compared to all tax collection efforts of the state. He estimated that as much as $65 million in overdue taxes of all types will be collected by Maine Revenue Services this year.

“This is just one more tool we have this year,” he said.

Gerard acknowledged there are some appeals of the seizure of stimulus payments, as there is when the state seizes federal tax refunds to pay state taxes. He said the state has sent checks to individuals who had met their tax obligations but still had the stimulus payment taken in error.

The purpose of the stimulus payments was to spur the economy, and Mike Allen, research director at Maine Revenue Services. He said early indications are that some of the estimated $500 million that came into the state was used to buy products and help the economy.

“Over the three months when most of the checks came into the state, we did see an upturn in sales tax revenues,” he said. “I would say we saw an impact on the economy, but not as much as there might have been if people had not been struggling with heating bills and high gasoline prices.”

Allen said while the offsets certainly had an impact on individuals, he did not think they had an impact on the effort to stimulate the economy. He said the amounts seized were small compared to the cash infused into the state.

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Comments
7 comments on this item
On 9/18/08 at 5:11 AM, RussHermon wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Now half of these people who lost their checks will qualify to live in the brand new,beautiful, low income condos they built on Griffin rd. DHS should be one of the seven wonders of the world...I wonder who will have the stones to can em and overhaul the broken mess they have drug this state into. The bald Pasta boiler doesn't.

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On 9/18/08 at 5:54 AM, raysgurl wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

There are a lot of sad situations out there. Not all of the so call dead-beat parents are bad people. Unfortunately when one family breaks up, it re-integrates into up to four other families, assuming new realationships for both parents, with children merging into families with other children. Sometimes it is just plain economics. There is just not enough to go around. Courts do not necessarily count in the needs of a new family unless and until another child results from that new relationship. Meanwhile the person who has custody may have different income from a new situation. The ecnomic and social stress will cause this pattern to repeat itself over and over. I am not sure there are any good answers to the situation, but I would like to see what others might propose for this social problem

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On 9/18/08 at 9:40 AM, pcme2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I think that it is a good thing that the State took all those checks. They will help the parents get the money that they are owed.

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On 9/18/08 at 1:49 PM, hittingcleanup wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Now the state just needs to start garnishing wages to recoup even more of the child support that dead beats are not paying. That would be one less bill the state would have to pay out.

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On 9/18/08 at 6:29 PM, JeffDubay wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Van Burgel’s quotes from this article would lead one to believe that the persons owing child support are somehow, less significant and no longer family members. Last I knew, a father still was a family member even after he was considered less significant in the eyes of government and required by court order to support at a government set level the child/ren of the aforementioned family, regardless of that individuals ability to continually pay that set amount. What I have concluded from her comments is Van Burgel was not fathered but more obviously the result of immaculate conception.

Not being able to see the forest for the trees, Van Burgel is then quoted saying what many men tell the child support enforcement ‘league’ anyway, and that is that they cannot afford the extortion money as well as support for themselves. The quote was, “She said many low-income Mainers do not bother to file a tax return because they have no tax liability.” How much clearer could that be?

If everyone knew how the laws were created to form an incentive for the State to get into the job of child support collection, they would be outraged. But nobody wants to listen.

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On 9/18/08 at 6:30 PM, Johninphilippines wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Agreed. Maine's laws must be enforced on the child support payments. If garnishing wages for in-state employment, holding income tax refunds and whatever it takes...now this new operation (Stimulus Checks), if applicable to the income tax withholding statutes, is great. If judgements are made against a person for support, then support shoud be made, nevertheless. Remember the continual "saying"...it's always the children who suffer the most".

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On 9/19/08 at 7:07 AM, rams076 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

RussHermon,

I agree with your thoughts on this issue. It is prevalent across the entire state. I lived in the Auburn/Lewiston area for a while (thank god I moved!) and the issue of welfare abuse is obvious. I rented a nice apartment across the street from some section 8 huosing (which I what I am assuming Griffin Park will be). I would leave for work at 6am and see people sitting outside of the section 8 drinking coffee and smoking butts. When I returned from work (paying for them), the SAME people would be sitting aourng drinking beer and smoking butts. Just because you have a kid does not mean you should be set on state funding. I talked to my accuontant and he told me that the state takes so much out of my paycheck for taxes (welfare money), that I could go long term disability (tax exempt) and make just as much money every week! What kind of state builds a system like that??? Baldacci has created an ugly monster that needs to be hauled in!

~Ol' Bangor Guy

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