Kerby: Support bill will get House OK
BONNERS FERRY — The chairman of the Idaho Health and Welfare Board is confident that the Idaho Legislature will back child support legislation when it reconvenes in special session on May 18.
“No doubt, the legislation will pass,” said Darrell Kerby of Bonners Ferry, a eight-year member of the board.
Gov. Butch Otter would not have reconvened the Legislature for what is hoped to be a one-day session if he were not confident of its approval, Kerby said.
While he believes most of the nine-member House committee who voted against moving Senate Bill 1067 out of committee, he is not sure that it will get an OK from Rep. Heather Scott, R- Blanchard. She represents Boundary and Bonner counties.
“I hope I am proven wrong — that all of our reps will vote for it,” he said.
Kerby has been vocal on Facebook that Scott does not represent the concerns of the citizens she represents.
If House members, who have received a complete understanding of the legislation from Gov. Otter and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, do not support the measure, they will have been “side-tracked by conspiracies” into “black helicopter politics,” he said.
The measure received full approval from the Senate during the regular session.
If the bill does not move forward, Idaho stands to lose $46 million in federal funding for child support enforcement, among other family-related funding.
In March, Idaho families representing 183,170 children received $19,251,548, in child support payments, according to a newly-created Health and Welfare blog.
In the three northern counties that breakdown for March is as follows:
• Boundary County, 701 children, $94,643;
• Bonner County, 2,466 children, $285,391;
• Kootenai County, 10,420 children, $1,391,063
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Kootenai, said several weeks ago the Health and Welfare has drafted a letter for families who receive child support informing that payments will not take place in June if the bill does not pass.
However, Kerby said the department has opted to hold off on sending out the letter because it would cost about the same as the special session at $36,000 for the first day, plus $6,000 a day for each additional day.
Kerby said he wants voters to understand that while everyone on the nine-member committee has been “painted with the same broad brush” as to why they voted against the bill, “it’s inappropriate to assume all were of like mind.”
He said the bill took on a life of its own, with some legislators believing they could address the issue in the 2016 session. What they didn’t realize was the bill had a deadline.
Kerby expects the bill to “fly through” the House, but if it doesn’t “I hope voters hold those people’s feet to the fire (who vote against it).”
• For more information on the child support enforcement bill, go to: http://dhwblog.com