Reporter Doesn't Ask Any Questions: TMJ4 Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I personally have been tracking stories pertaining to child support enforcement programs that are funded through Title IV-D of the Social Security Act for several years now. Tracking the stories on a regular basis allows me to view the programs from a different perspective, one that is shaped around the government program as a revenue generation tool as opposed to a program designed to narrowly solve a legitimate social ill. In many regards, the outcomes of the programs appear to perpetuate various social problems.

A recent I-Team investigations by John Mercure, TMJ4 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, seemed very irresponsible by falling prey to printing the same bureaucratic spin that is being released all over the country by concerned child support collection officers that are trying to keep their comfy government jobs at the expense of the taxpayers. Instead of rebutting the article, I took a moment to look up some statistics regarding Wisconsin's Title IV-D child support program through various federal sources.

• Most child support collections are made for families who have never been on assistance! The program was originally intended to recuperate money expended by the federal government to the states for their welfare programs. Now the taxpayer is caught funding a glorified collection service for middle and upper income feuding families!
• The most effective form of collection is through income withholding orders through Fiscal Year 2006. Income Withholding Orders are an automated task that doesn't require employees.
• The Financial Data Match program is a computer generated list that is matched up electronically by the State's data contractors. This sweeps money from obligors' accounts automatically and doesn't take additional employees.
• Federal and State Income Tax Off-Sets are another highly effective method of collection child support according to the federal government reports on Child Support collections. This again does not take additional employees.
• Wisconsin's Total Administrative Expenses, which as of today are unaudited and likely to be plagued with immense overspending, total $108,692,436.00! At least $777,010.00 of the administrative expenses weren't even for Title IV-D / Collection services.
• NON-TANF (should be income ineligible to receive government services at taxpayer expense) collections continued to increase in Fiscal Year 2006, While the collections on cases that are Welfare cases DECLINED according to federal reports.
• Wisconsin has a central child support distribution center for receiving and distributing child support funds and the local county offices no longer perform this intensive function.

The program should become more efficient over time and require less employees while the middle and upper income feuding families should be removed from the program. The opposite appears to be happening to the program, instead the program is getting larger and claiming to need more funds to operate. The State should not focus their programs on revenue generation but on aid to needy families. This will save the taxpayers immensely. An equal custody mandate would go along way in solving expense problems as well.

A final note on child support is that the I-TEAM in Wisconsin should be focusing its attention on ensuring that the State of Wisconsin doesn't steal money from these poor children by not distributing collected child support. In Fiscal Year 2006 there is NET UNDISTRIBUTED CHILD SUPPORT COLLECTIONS OF $8,210,847 according to the Federal Child Support Preliminary Report for 2006. Of that Net UDC at least 8.6% of it has been completely unresolved. If this money is not distributed within one year from the date of collection the state is allowed to escheat the money into its own budget as program income, taking it out of reach of the children it was collected for! This makes it worthwhile for the State to sit on the money. Why not locate these parents and get this money distributed before it is stolen from these poor children!