Kids Are the Ones Paying

Finally, after years of neglect, California has rallied to help children whose parents don’t pay child support. Yet Washington continues to punish the state--and ultimately those same children--because the child support enforcement system, though revamped, still has flaws.

The state can’t get relief from heavy federal fines because it lacks a single, statewide computerized system, which Washington funded years ago. Yes, the federal government required California to have it up and running by 1996. Yes, the state missed the deadline. But heavy penalties are no longer needed to prod California to do a better job of getting support payments to children.

More children are getting monthly support even in Los Angeles County, which, before the state takeover of these services, had an abysmal record. In 1998, a Times investigation found that the L.A. district attorney’s office failed to collect any money in nine out of 10 child support cases. That, despite 1,500 employees, a $100-million budget and powers rivaling the Internal Revenue Service, which can find almost anyone.

Children today get paid in one out of three cases in L.A. County, and four of 10 statewide. The California Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis removed the responsibility from county prosecutors and two years ago created a new state department. Soon, parents who didn’t do right by their children lost chunks of their paychecks and tax refunds.

The state collected $2 billion last year. Two-thirds went directly to families. That’s a shift from the system’s former emphasis on collecting money to repay county welfare departments for public assistance checks cashed long ago--so long that the children who had so needed the money were now grandparents themselves.

The new state system has more than doubled the average collected per deadbeat dad or mom, to $1,015 per case. It has established paternity for more babies born to unwed parents, so that child support collections, if necessary, will be easier. The system also increased collection of current and past due support.

Another improvement assures that innocent men--including those misidentified as negligent fathers because of common last names or those who have already paid up and no longer belong in the system--can get formal resolution of their complaints in 30 days. That compares with the years such people wasted under the old system trying to correct costly errors, often without success.

Washington should reward California for this progress. Instead, it demands that 30 cents of every dollar the state spends on such improvements be diverted to the federal government. That removes the state’s incentive to invest money to fix the problems or move beyond the status quo.

The federal fine is expected to top $180 million this year. Congress should cut the fine so that more money can be spent more quickly on more children.