Though the bill got further this year than ever before, legislation to intercept gambling and sports betting winnings from people who owe child support to the state has died.

This law, which exists in several other states, including bordering Louisiana, passed the Senate but was not taken up by the House committee before the deadline Tuesday. Similar bills died during the 2022 and 2023 sessions. 

Mississippi Department of Human Services, the state’s welfare agency that oversees the child support program, is advocating for this policy in order to increase child support collections and had hoped that, with the support of the Attorney General, it would have passed this year.

“While we are disappointed in the status of the legislation, MDHS is steadfast in our efforts to continue to seek opportunities to maximize the collection of child support arrearages on behalf of the Mississippi children that we serve,” said a spokesperson for MDHS. 

The child support enforcement program, which touches more than half of the children in Mississippi based on federal data, already targets lottery payouts. 

Under Senate Bill 2132, slot machine winnings over $1,200 and sports betting winnings over $600 would have been subject to child support withholding. Casinos are already required to keep tabs on winnings over these amounts for the IRS. Under the proposal, they would also have been required to check if a winner has child support arrears before issuing the money. The industry asked the state to create a real-time database that casinos can access before letting the law take effect so that they can still issue winnings immediately. 

“Are we not, through DHS, paying a law firm some $16 to $18 million a year to go after deadbeat dads, and if so, what kind of database are they using and why couldn’t you apply this database to this effort?” asked Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson during floor debate.

Horhn was referring to the state’s controversial privatized child support enforcement program run by government contractor Young Williams. Since 2016, the company has promised to improve the program’s efficiency while raking in $219 million in taxpayer dollars in that time. Yet, Mississippi maintains the worst child support collection rate in the nation, according to available federal data. Of the cases it handles, the state collected just 51% of the support payments judges ordered parents to make in 2022, compared to 65% nationally.

Horhn, who along with four other senators voted against the bill, seemed to question how much money the state would realistically recoup through casinos.

“Is there an expectation that there are a lot of lucky betters (with back child support) out there that are unlucky in love and lucky at the slots?” Horhn said.

Louisiana launched its gambling withholding program in 2011. In the first nine years, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services intercepted an average of nearly $1 million a year from casinos, according to the National Child Support Engagement Association. This represents a roughly 0.2% increase in the state’s overall annual child support collections. Other states have collected much less through this method, such as $43,000 annually in New Mexico.

The Mississippi Department of Human Services requested the 2024 bill authored by Sen. Walter Michel, R-Ridgeland. It was also part of the policy agenda of Attorney General Lynn Fitch. 

Since successfully arguing in 2022 for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade – ending the landmark legislation that protected a woman’s right to an abortion – Fitch has put forth a policy initiative called The Empowerment Project that involves cracking down on child support.

“Enhancement of child support enforcement is a top priority of #TheEmpowermentProject, and I am grateful to Senator Walter Michel for working with us to move this bill through the Senate!” Fitch wrote in a Facebook post after the bill passed the senate. 

Another piece of legislation in this vein – which would have allowed for child support obligations to begin accruing during pregnancy – was unsuccessful this session.

In 2022, the latest year for which data is available, Mississippi disbursed $336 million in collected child support payments – the lowest amount of any year since 2017. The number of children has also declined from about 379,000 to 362,000. On average, Mississippi disburses $77 per child per month, but many children receive nothing.

The recent reduction in disbursements is consistent with national trends. While most states saw a historic uptick of collections and disbursements in 2020 – $405 million in Mississippi – due to pandemic aid, those gains tapered off in 2021. All but seven states disbursed more in 2018 than they did in 2022. Mississippi only saw half-a-percent reduction in disbursements from 2018-2022 compared to a national average of 5%. 

The most significant area of improvement in Mississippi’s program under Young Williams is in the state’s ability to secure support orders from judges in their cases. When a custodial parent enters the child support enforcement program – often by force in order to qualify for public assistance – the state seeks an order from a judge determining how much the noncustodial parent must pay each month. In 2022, 87% of cases in the system had a support order compared to just 58% in 2011.

One of the biggest complaints of the child support system is from custodial parents who say the state is failing to properly disburse the money it collects from noncustodial parents. Mississippi had accumulated $20.7 million in undistributed child support payments by the end of 2022 compared to $12.7 million in 2018. Most states have also seen an increase to their rate of undisbursed collections in the last five years. 

In the previous five sessions, lawmakers filed at least 75 bills to address some area of the child support program – anywhere from the punishment of noncustodial parents who don’t pay, to the current contract privatizing the function, to the requirement that custodial parents cooperate with the program to be eligible for public assistance. Only four survived and were enacted.

In 2023, lawmakers passed a law to allow MDHS to administratively suspend child support debts from accruing when a noncustodial parent is incarcerated. This wasn’t necessarily Mississippi’s idea. The state had to enact the law to remain in compliance with a 2016 federal rule change so that it could continue drawing down federal funds.

Another law backed by Fitch and enacted last year increased the statute of limitations for criminal charges against a person who refuses to pay child support. Before, a person could be charged with desertion of a child if they wilfully neglected or refused to pay child support while the child is under 18. The bill increased that age to 21 and allowed for charges to be pursued for three years after the child turns 21.

A law passed in 2022 required the state treasurer to begin coordinating with the welfare agency to determine if anyone who owed child support was entitled to any unclaimed property that the state could intercept. MDHS told Mississippi Today that this legislation has already resulted in additional child support collections of about $2.3 million as of December 2023.

Lawmakers also changed the formula for computing a noncustodial parent’s monthly child support obligation  – another rule change Mississippi had to enact to remain in federal compliance. Historically, when the state lacked information about a noncustodial parent’s earnings, it would assume minimum wage – $7.25-an-hour at 40 hours a week – to determine how much child support to order.

This didn’t take into account the parent’s realistic employability, potentially saddling them with monthly debts they could not pay. The new 2022 law allows the state to take into account other factors when determining how much to recommend.

Under Gov. Tate Reeves’ direction, MDHS has the authority to make some changes to its programs on its own without legislative action. It exercised this control in 2023 when it removed the requirement that a custodial parent must comply with child support enforcement against the other parent to qualify for child care assistance – a policy change long backed by advocates of low-income families.

Since the policy change, MDHS said it has seen an increase of nearly 10,300 children in the child care assistance program.

The child support cooperation requirement is still in place for parents seeking food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. When child support is collected from a parent whose child is or was ever receiving TANF, the state takes the child support payments to pay itself back for any cash assistance it provided to the custodial parent.

In 2021, MDHS also acted on its own to create a “pass through” so that parents in this predicament will at least receive the first $100 received by the child support office each month before the state recoups the rest.

The post Gamblers won’t see child support withholdings in Mississippi this year appeared first on Mississippi Today.