Deadbeat Dads drain budget

The poor losing health insurance is one of many factors they have to contend with. You can add affordable housing, the cost of food, affordable quality child care, discrimination, auto insurance rates and bundles of red tape. These issues should not be taken lightly by politicians, who campaign for votes by promising change. When elected, it seems their promises are compromised when they realize how many problems New Jersey has.

Prioritizing is one of the major problems that political leaders need to address. When the state puts the cost of highways, bridges and rezoning before the well-being of the people, these issues do not get solved. And no one is willing to step up to the plate to resolve these issues.

One of the major losses in revenue is uncollected child support. As a mother of three, my two ex-husbands owe me over $38,000 in uncollected support for the past four years. Yet the cost to the state for just one year of assistance is the following: rental assistance-$22,000 and child care services-$10,400. This does not include personnel and supplies to process this assistance.

Of all the people collecting assistance, how many would not have to, if these support payments were made? Prioritizing is just the word. If by collecting this support could save the state an average of $20,000 per family, maybe then the focus would be to benefit the people.

Published in the Asbury Park Press 6/20/2003

Deadbeat Dad’s drain budget

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