Legislator blasts Okla. on child support

A Wichita legislator has declared war on Oklahoma.

“What they’re doing is unacceptable and we’re not going to take it,” said Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican.

Landwehr is spitting nails because Oklahoma officials last month told one of her constituents, Pam Hutchinson, of Wichita, that they wouldn’t help collect her ex-husband’s past-due child support.

“He’s always been behind on his child support,” Hutchinson said. “He owes something like $20,000.”

Landwehr is chairwoman of the House budget subcommittee that oversees the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which among other tasks serves as the state’s child-support collection agency.

“I’ve told SRS that if this doesn’t get worked out pretty quick, we’ll just put out a cease-and-desist order on Oklahoma child support,” Landwehr said. “I don’t see why we should be helping them if they’re not helping us.”

But that’s probably not a good idea, said Jim Robertson, head of child-support enforcement at SRS.

“We’ve contacted the feds about this,” Robertson said, “and it’s my understanding that they’re talking to my counterpart in Oklahoma. What they’re doing doesn’t seem to be within the federal law, so I don’t think we can or should do it to them either.”

Ray Weaver, head of child-support enforcement at Oklahoma Department of Human Services, said it was all a misunderstanding.

Weaver said a worker mistakenly interpreted the agency’s policy when deciding to reject Hutchinson’s case.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” Weaver said. He said other cases also were mistakenly sent back to several different states, not just Kansas.

“We’ve re-educated our workers, we’ve apologized and we’ve assured the other states that if they’ll send us back the cases, we’ll process them,” he said.

That was news to Hutchinson.

“As far as I know, nothing’s been solved — this thing has been at a standstill since January of last year,” she said. “Every time I call anybody, all they say is, ‘Nothing new to report, sorry.'”

“I’m appalled,” Landwehr said.