A candlelight vigil tonight in Des Moines seeks to shine light on the over one-billion dollars in court-ordered child support that’s not being paid in Iowa. Maja Rater, a spokesperson for the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support. She says 230-thousand-803 children are going without the support payments they’re due. She says there are enough laws to recover the court ordered support, but she says the laws are seldom enforced. Rater says state officials take the easy way out when it comes to child support. She says judges look the other way and child support officials look for ways to avoid doing anything meaningful. She says they collect from the parents who willfully pay and then tout the good collection rate they’ve accomplished. Rater says politicians aren’t willing to do anything either.She says the legislature blames the problem on the governor, while the governor blames the problem on the legislature, and northing ever happens. She says judges continually give parents a second chance to pay. Rater says she’s personally owed 200-thousand dollars in child support. Rater says many parents owed child support have to work extra jobs to avoid going on welfare. She says they don’t want to depend on the state. She says the social programs will just keep people poor, while child support could help them manage without turning to the taxpayers for help. Rater says the taxpayers though don’t seem to be interested in helping either. She says taxpayers get what they deserve by not doing anything. The vigil is tonight at seven o’clock at Nollen Plaza in Downtown Des Moines.
