Lawmakers came up with some new tools Tuesday to further the state’s efforts to force parents to pay overdue child support.
The Senate approved 51-0 a measure that would force marriage-license applicants to submit a notarized form attesting that neither the soon-to-be groom nor bride is delinquent in child support.
The House voted 109-0 to pass legislation that would put the names, faces and biographical information of deadbeat parents on the state’s home page on the Internet.
“There are mothers and children who wind up on public aid even though the father is out there working. We just can’t find them,” said Rep. Carolyn Krause (R-Mt. Prospect), who sponsored the Internet bill. “That means $1 billion in (uncollected child support). If we could collect some of that, it would help those families a great deal.”
The marriage-license legislation was sponsored by Sen. Jesus Garcia (D-Chicago) and supported by Bruce Clark, the Kankakee County clerk who heads the state’s county clerks association. Clark said that when Illinoisans get marriage licenses, they are given brochures warning about AIDS and the dangers of drinking alcohol for pregnant women.
“It should be no more trouble to get them to sign a piece of paper before they get a marriage license,” Clark said.
Under the measure, which goes to the House, county clerks could submit the notarized forms to the local Circuit Court clerk and the Department of Public Aid so that the names can be cross-referenced with known child-support deadbeats. Filing a false statement would be punishable by jail.
“Why in the world should these men or women go into a second marriage owing perhaps a very large debt and then, possibly, be obligated for another debt by marrying and having more children?” asked Sen. Beverly Fawell (R-Glen Ellyn). “It’s about time some of these people started taking care of their first family before they started a second.”
Meanwhile, in the fallout of the Silver Shovel federal investigation of alleged governmental corruption in Chicago, the Senate approved a measure that would prevent convicted felons from holding ward or township office.
The bill was a response to former Ald. Ambrosio Medrano’s victory as 25th Ward Democratic committeeman, despite admitting that he had accepted payoffs from the FBI. State law forced him to give up his City Council seat, but did not affect the political party elections.
The legislation would not affect Medrano’s ward- organization victory as it would apply only to future cases.
The legislation also would move non-partisan, odd-year fall elections for such posts as school boards and special taxing districts to the spring. It also would require the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to publish the names of those purged from voting rolls.
In other legislative action:
Sex offenders: People convicted of molesting children would be forbidden from changing their names for 10 years after their release from prison under a House-passed bill.
Driver’s licenses: A plan backed by Secretary of State George Ryan to let safe motorists renew their licenses through the mail or by phone was sent to the House by the Senate.
Taxing districts: Senators overwhelmingly defeated a measure that would have prevented any new or expanded tax increment financing districts and blocked any projects pending within them.
