Proposed child welfare cuts put incentive funds at risk
State lawmakers and a Clark County lobbyist bristled Friday at proposed budget cuts to Nevada's child support program.
The Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services' recommended cuts include 10 state-funded positions from the county's child support office and four workers who help find jobs for unemployed parents who owe child support.
The cuts come as Nevada has been improving its child support collections despite the flagging economy, division administrator Romaine Gilliland said. The state has moved up to 18th in the national ranking for establishing paternity and 38th in the ranking for the percentage of getting court orders in child support cases, he told members of the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees.
Those improvements lead to more federal incentive funds, which are awarded based on improving child support collections.
Alex Ortiz, a Clark County lobbyist, said those incentive funds would be at risk with the loss of 10 child support case workers. Last fiscal year, the county earned $1.3 million in federal incentives and gave a quarter of it to statewide child support improvements, he said.
Losing those 10 case workers would drop child support collections by more than $17 million, he said.
The county collected $123 million last fiscal year, about $85 million of which went directly to families. The rest went to the state child support program, he said.
Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, D-Henderson, noted how the proposed cuts were another example of the state passing expenses onto the counties.
"The idea that Clark County will just pick up these 10 positions ... is just mind boggling," she said.
The loss of those positions would also increase the caseloads for the remaining workers by 14 percent, further eroding the ability to collect child support and threatening the federal incentive funds, according to the county website.
Under an agreement with Nevada, the Clark County district attorney's office handles the state's share of child support cases. Those cases involve families on state welfare, and any child support collections go into the state's general fund.
About half of the county's caseload of more than 39,000 are state cases, Ortiz said, noting that budget cuts led Washoe County in 2008 to stop handling state cases.
The state budget also proposes cutting four employment assistance workers from child support offices who help jobless parents find work so they can pay what they owe.
Gilliland said other social service agencies have similar programs to help people find work.
"How can someone pay child support without a job?" asked Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas.
In a statement tinged with frustration, Horsford said the poor once again are taking the brunt the proposed budget cuts. The state needs a plan to address the wider issue of poverty, he said.
"We're not fixing the root cause of the problem, which is poverty," he said.
Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.
