Talk about your good news/bad news moments. Attorney General Greg Abbott this morning proudly announced that, in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, his office had collected $2.3 billion in child support. That’s up $243 million from the previous year and the fifth year in a row that Abbott’s people have managed to hunt down more delinquent payers.
Abbott has called “protecting Texas children … our top priority,” and the child-support division has always been one of Abbott’s favored departments since he took the post. That paid off in plaudits from the National Child Support Enforcement Association in August when the Texas system was named best child-support program in the nation. According to Abbott’s press release on the occasion, that seems to be judged purely in financial terms, of how many dollars per employee were collected ($760,000 against the national average of $396,000) and how many parents (270,000) were taken off Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
If you’re looking for the bad news, it’s hard to find an upside to the fact that the Attorney General’s Office had to hunt down $2.3 billion in child support. There are a lot of broken homes and unpaid bills in those stats.
This article appears in November 23 • 2007.
