‘That makes zero sense’: Ursula pans plan to garnish child support payments of low-income families

With Washington state facing a $13 billion deficit, Governor Bob Ferguson wants to garnish child support payments of low income families as a way to help balance the budget. The idea didn’t go over so well on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

Under federal law, if your family is on public assistance, the state can garnish child support payments to reimburse the government for that money. It’s been the practice in Washington state for decades. But a bipartisan bill aims to end this practice by 2026, with proponents of the bill arguing this is all just a tax on low income families.

The pushback

State Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn) sponsored the bill. He recently criticized the governor’s plan to keep garnishing child support payments of low income families.

“Raising taxes on poor families is the wrong way to balance the budget,” Couture said. “We should be looking at other areas to cut.”

Co-host Gee Scott noted that Ferguson is against a wealth tax, but in favor of going after low income households? “That makes zero sense to me,” co-host Ursula Reutin responded.

“We gave big kudos to Governor Ferguson for not immediately going to taxes [to address the budget deficit], but I didn’t know that that would now include hitting and hurting some of the most vulnerable people in our state,” Ursula continued.

Listen to the full discussion below.

Gee and Ursula: This makes little sense.

Ursula added, “This hurts a lot of single, low-income women. The reality is, this practice disincentivizes men from making their child support payments because they know their kids aren’t getting the money anyway.”

Gee slammed the practice as “not a good look,” with Ursula noting that garnishing child support payments has a long history but many states are moving away from this practice. Why isn’t Washington one of them?

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.