CHILD SUPPORT PAYOUTS SURGE IN STATE.Byline: Dennis Love Daily News Staff Writer Automation, more aggressive prosecution of ``deadbeat'' parents and other reforms helped push child support collections in California over the $1 billion mark - a 22 percent surge over the previous year. In Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County, the District Attorney's Office reported collections of more than $195 million for fiscal year 1995-96, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year. The previous yearly increase in the county was 5.3 percent, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the California Department of Social Services California Department of Social Services is a single state agency for many of the programs defined as part of the social safety net in the United States. Federal and State funds for adoptions, aid to the disabled, family crisis counseling, subsistence payments to poor . ``We're very, very pleased,'' said Mike Botula, community outreach coordinator for the district attorney's Bureau of Family Support Operations, who said the increases reflected the first full year of computer automation of the collections system. ``Computerization com·put·er·ize tr.v. com·put·er·ized, com·put·er·iz·ing, com·put·er·iz·es 1. To furnish with a computer or computer system. 2. To enter, process, or store (information) in a computer or system of computers. has freed much of our staff from more mundane duties to concentrate on more productive areas,'' Botula said. Botula also said the addition of a criminal court exclusively dedicated to delinquent child support prosecutions has greatly aided the effort. ``It seems like there is a light at the end of the tunnel now,'' said Ruth Fitzgerald of Gardena, who, with the help of the District Attorney's Office, recently secured a lien on her ex-husband's workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. settlement to defray de·fray tr.v. de·frayed, de·fray·ing, de·frays To undertake the payment of (costs or expenses); pay. [French défrayer, from Old French desfrayer : des-, delinquent child support payments. ``The more child support is enforced, the less women will be forced to go on welfare,'' Fitzgerald said. In making the announcement in Sacramento, Gov. Pete Wilson For others named Pete Wilson, see . Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American Republican politician from California. Wilson served as the thirty-sixth Governor of California (1991–1999), the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that said the $1.1 billion collected from July 1, 1995, to June 30 was the achievement of ``a monumental goal.'' ``There is an undeniable link between father absence and childhood poverty, teen-age pregnancy, family violence, drug and alcohol abuse, school failure, juvenile crime and welfare dependency,'' Wilson said. ``California must encourage even more parents to embrace their responsibilities.'' The last time statewide collections registered such a leap was in 1982-83, when $262.9 million was collected, an increase of 21.8 percent from the previous year. |
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