Well good. Missouri has backed off its plan to make kids pay to get child support. Here’s the story from the Kansas City Star. You already knew about plan, which assessed a $25 fee to children who received child support from their delinquent parents’ income tax refund.
Here’s a bit of the story:
Sen. Chuck Gross, R-St. Charles, who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he complained about the fee Wednesday to the interim director of the [Missouri] Department of Social Services.
“Their reasoning was that it’s more difficult from a legal, technical standpoint to be able to get it out of the guy paying the child support. So it was easier to get it from the woman,” said Gross. “I said, `I don’t care, that’s wrong, we can’t be doing that.'”
O’Mara estimated that 8,670 parents would have had their child support checks reduced by the $25 fee, which could have raised $217,000 for the state. She said some of that money would have helped cover processing expenses. The U.S. Department of the Treasury charges states $12.65 each time a state reroutes a noncustodial parent’s tax refund.