AUGUSTA, Maine — Children of parents who do not pay their child support could be the big winners under legislation that would have gambling winnings at Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway seized to pay past due child support.
“Over time, the truth of the situation has not changed,” said Sen. Deborah Simpson, D-Auburn, the sponsor of the measure. “The number one predictor of whether or not a child from a single parent home lives in poverty is whether or not the absent parent pays child support. So everything the state can do to ensure that the pay-ments are made improves the quality of life for those children.”
She said her bill would build on the existing law that seeks to force parents to pay child support. For example, she said, gambling winnings from the Maine State Lottery already can be seized to pay child support and other state obligations.
“It’s another tool to get what is owed these children,” she said.
Simpson said the state has been adding procedures for several years aimed at collecting child support. She said it is the right policy to make absent parents pay to support their children. The bill, as drafted, would affect both Hollywood Slots and any future gambling facilities authorized by the Legislature and off-track betting fa-cilities, she said.
“Why should a person who has the money to go spend on gambling come away with a profit while their children are going without?” she said. “That is just unacceptable.”
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey said her office is reviewing the bill and may support it when it has a public hearing on March 10, before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
“I have not seen the bill,” she said in an interview, “but I think we would endorse the direction of trying to get to any resources a noncustodial parent has in their possession.”
Harvey said there are many provisions in current law aimed at collecting child support payments, but every tool to help with collection is a help.
“Probably the most dramatic action we take now is that we can prevent a person from having a driver’s license or a professional license or a recreational license if they do not pay support,” she said.
In a report to the Legislature last month, the Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery Director Stephen Hussey outlined the license revocation efforts over 2007 and 2008. He reported 60,266 Mainers who held some sort of license were notified they could have that license suspended under the law during that reporting pe-riod.
“DSER records show 16,305 professional and business and recreational [licenses] were suspended by licensing agencies in Maine,” he wrote. “More than 7,751 drivers’ licenses were suspended as a result of actions by DSER during this reporting period.”
There were 10,251 professional and business and recreational licenses reinstated after DHHS notified the issuing agencies that child support obligations had been met. Also, 4,907 driver’s licenses were reinstated after obligations were current.
Hussey, in the report, said the license suspension authority was “the single most important enforcement action” available to collect child support that his agency has.
Harvey agreed and said the license suspension activity has been very successful in getting absent parents to pay the child support they owe. Total collections were $115.7 million for the federal budget year 2007, the most recent data available.
“I think we are doing a good job,” she said, “but we can always do better with additional tools.”
It is unclear how much the Simpson provision will recover from absent parents. State lottery director Dan Gwadosky said in 2008 there were 21 winners who owed $19,720 in child support and had those amounts seized to pay support obligations. He said there were other offsets as well under state law that affects lottery win-nings.
“In 2008, we offset lottery winnings for 31 claimants who owed the Department of Labor [overpayment of unemployment compensation] for a total of $21,320,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Simpson said whether it is a large or small source of support dollars is not the issue as far as she is concerned.
“Every time we add a new tool for support enforcement it is generating more revenues for children,” she said. “It also means less that Maine taxpayers have to pay to support these children that should be supported by their parents.”