Proposal addresses unpaid child support

In an attempt to chip away at a statewide child-support backlog totaling $147 million, the Legislature is considering a bill that would prohibit those who owe payments from hunting and fishing in the state.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, presented Senate Bill 172, which would bar anyone who owes child support in the state from obtaining a wildlife conservation license. That license is a prerequisite for hunting, fishing and trapping licenses in Montana.

“Not everyone who is behind on their child support hunts or fishes, however those that do will forgo that opportunity until they alleviate their child-support obligations,” Lang told the committee.

The state’s protective-services agency already can suspend driving licenses and contracting licenses once someone falls six months behind on their payments. But Sarah Swanson-Partridge, a mother and business owner from Glasgow, testified that those measures weren’t enough to compel her estranged partner to make payments to support their child for seven years.

Swanson-Partridge said she worked with the state agency to have his fishing and trapping privileges suspended as well, but found that current law only allows such prohibitions on certain out-of-state hunting licenses.

“Fortunately, in my son’s case, one letter threatening to withhold a hunting or fishing license was all the motivation needed, and seven years of child support was paid in one year to preserve the right to hunt and fish,” she said. “I wondered how many other people in Montana found themselves in the same situation.”

She added that after consulting with a Billings attorney, they found that more than 34,000 Montanans who owed child support at the time.

Lang’s bill won support from Nick Jevock, the Montana Wildlife Federation’s conservation director.

Sen. Jen Gross, a Billings Democrat who serves on the committee, questioned whether the proposal might conflict with the state constitution’s recognition of Montanans’ rights to harvest wild game.

“I think child support is adjudicated, is something that people have an obligation to do, and we don’t see a conflict there with this bill,” Jevock responded.

While Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, agreed with the principle of “getting after dead-beat dads,” she questioned whether the bill could have the opposite effect in some cases.

“A number of people in this state that are in poverty, and lack of payment is not always because they don’t want to — sometimes it’s because they can’t,” Fielder said. “I’m really concerned if we strip away a person’s ability to provide sustenance through wild meat that is obtained by a great number of families through fishing, hunting and trapping in this state, I’m really concerned that we’re not helping families.”

Lang said that the state’s child support system allows for payments to be deferred in the event of a hardship, and the law gives those paying child support the ability to work with judges and agency officials if they are financially unable to pay.

The committee did not take action on the bill Tuesday.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.