Tax Board OKs Child Support Collection Plan : Families: The agency uses tax, DMV and bank records to track absent parents. The program proved swift and effective in L.A. County test and will be expanded.

Warning delinquent parents to think twice about not paying child support, Controller Gray Davis announced Wednesday that the state Franchise Tax Board’s new child support collection process will be expanded in Los Angeles County after a successful test run.

More than $100,000 in unpaid child support has been collected over the past seven weeks in the program’s preliminary phase.

“We have your numbers: your phone numbers, your Social Security numbers,” Davis warned those who are delinquent in paying child support. “So you can send the check now or write a bigger check later.”

The Franchise Tax Board’s Child Support Collection Program will use tax, Department of Motor Vehicles and bank records to locate delinquent parents.

Davis announced the program’s initial results at a news conference Wednesday, where he also introduced members of the Child Support Advisory Task Force who will monitor the program.

Focusing on 1,372 of the county’s toughest child support cases, the test program was successful in collecting $131,716 in unpaid child support payments, Davis said.

More than half of that--$78,180--was from bank account and wage levies. The test program’s payments averaged about $612, Davis said. The largest was $4,800.

“We have proven in just seven weeks that deadbeat parents can run but they can’t hide from their responsibilities,” Davis said.

The program was created last September out of legislation ordering the state tax board to establish a plan for collecting child support.

Under the program, the district attorney’s office will still be responsible for child support collection using traditional methods, such as telephone and mail contact, bank liens and wage levies.

But if the parents are in arrears for more than 30 days, their cases will be referred to the tax board, which will employ its extensive records.

“We send a bill to individuals notifying them we are going to begin collecting in 10 working days,” said Ann Barkley, director of the tax board’s Compliance Development Bureau. “If the debtor fails to respond, we begin taking action with an automated collection response, which includes bank levies, wage levies and personal property seizures.”

The program will be expanded to six other counties in January. Providing it proves successful, the tax board plans to expand it statewide.

A 1992 study produced by the California-based advocacy group Children Now reported that although parents have a legal obligation to financially support their children, most do not do so voluntarily.

California children experience an average drop of 31% in their standard of living after their parents divorce, while absent fathers see their standard of living improve by 41%, according to the report.

“Child support enforcement is one of the successful strategies in fighting childhood poverty, and to see some success in Los Angeles is encouraging,” said Wendy Lazarus, vice president of Children Now.

More than $3 billion in child support is owed in California, according to a survey done by the Rockefeller Foundation.

The program will speed up child support investigations, said Carol Mentell, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Bureau of Family Support Operations. Locating a delinquent parent’s bank account or an employer can often take months, she said.

“But the (Franchise Tax Board) can do this,” Mentell said. “They have access to banking information, employer information, and they also have the power to impose liens, which we can’t do. We have to go through the court system to impose liens.”

The response is immediate, said tax board spokesman Jim Reber. The board places the delinquent person’s bank account on hold once the agency’s notification has been sent, he said.

“It’s not as though the 10-day notice gives the errant parent notice to remove their money from the bank,” Reber said. “In order to release the lien on the bank account, they’re going to have to show that (child support) was paid.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a member of the Child Support Advisory Task Force, applauded the new program.

“Poverty in Los Angeles is a reality for children,” Burke said. “And this is the time when everyone is going to have to take responsibility if they are a parent.”

The 25-member task force met Wednesday after the news conference to examine the test findings and suggest ways to improve the program. The group includes such children’s rights advocates as as attorney Gloria Allred; Sue Speir, founder of Single Parents United N’ Kids, a child support information and referral organization, and county Supervisor Gloria Molina.