Small business, deadbeat dads

Government leaders keep telling us the engine of economic growth is small business.  They can’t wait to do more to encourage small business. Then they force small businesses to jump through hoops with complicated rules and paperwork.
Here is what one small business owner told me:
A few years ago, she learned she had to comply with a program called the New Hires Directory. She is required to file a report, within 20 days of hiring a new employee, giving the employee’s name, address and Social Security number.
Immigration, you might be thinking. Nope, child support.
The information is used by the New Mexico Human Services Department to locate parents (usually, but not always, fathers) who are delinquent in their child support payments.
Hooray, you say. Catch those deadbeat dads and make ‘em pay.
She started filing reports as required. She is in a seasonal business using low-skilled manual laborers – not exactly the pick of the workforce. A few of those workers are the very delinquent dads HSD is looking for. Now the hard part begins.
She gets a notice telling her she has to garnish a portion of a certain worker’s wages, sending it to the state instead of paying the employee. She has to do the work to set this up administratively.

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