SB 63 – Revision of Criminal Penalty for Nonsupport of a Dependent Child

The House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code will consider SB 63 today. It enhances the penalty for nonsupport of a dependent child if the individual has a prior conviction for the offense. It also, based on the fiscal note, removes the enhancement for first time offenders whose support arrearage exceeds $15,000. So, in other words, repeat offenders with smaller arrearages (less than $15,000) would suffer from the enhancement and first time offenders with larger arrearages would benefit from a lesser penalty. The fiscal note indicates that this is expected to reduce the Department of Correction incarcerations somewhat. The note doesn’t say, but I would assume that this creates the potential for local incarcerations in the county jail to go up somewhat as well. But, the fiscal impact does not seem to be dramatic either way.