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C I N C I N N A T I P O S T

County asks time on kid-support date

By Mike Rutledge, Post staff reporter

February is too soon for Hamilton County to join the state's computerized system that processes child support payments, county officials plan to tell state officials.

Hamilton County Department of Human Services officials told county commissioners this morning they fear the state will not be prepared for implementation by the county's state-mandated February deadline. Instead, they hope the state can have fixed some major problems by April - at the earliest. The commissioners gave approval to send a letter seeking a deadline extension.

County officials fear problems with the state's system, including:

Poor customer services.

Inaccurate data.

No online tracking of payment history.

Lack of customer-convenient hours.

To sidestep those problems and others, the county wants to push back the date the state will force it to join the system.

State officials, themselves, face deadlines: Ohio could pay penalties of around $100 million if all counties are not on the system by Oct. 1, 2000, county officials said.

In the meantime, county child-support officials this week plan to visit Montgomery County, which has joined the system and faced many problems.

Officials also plan to meet early next month with local state lawmakers and congress members to discuss the issue.

The federally mandated statewide computer systems can cause problems so severe, ''California brought their (system) up and shut it off,'' county Human Services Director Don Thomas said today.

Publication date: 11-01-99

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 01, 1999

Answers

Good luck to them...going to a new system now is the height of irresponsibility!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 02, 1999.