Toward the end of his State of the State Address, Gov. Ducey said he’s going to get tough on deadbeat dads.

For fathers out there who aren’t meeting their obligations, we also have a plan. I’m talking to deadbeat dads. For too long, you’ve been able to remain anonymous – able to skirt your financial and legal responsibilities with no shame. Not anymore.

Some people have referred to me as the “Hash-tag Governor.” Well here’s a new one for all the deadbeat dads out there: Effective immediately, the state is going to begin posting the photos, names and money owed by these losers to social media, with the hash-tag “deadbeat.”

Earlier in the address, Ducey patted himself on the back for his support of our school children. He spoke of “a monumental, bipartisan, 3.5 billion dollar solution” that will “put our kids and teachers first.” He’s undeserving of the praise he heaped upon himself. What he’s offering to our school children actually makes him and the leaders of the state legislature, Andy Biggs and David Gowan, worthy of being the first recipients of the #deadbeat hashtag.

Here’s how Ducey’s promise of educational child support should be viewed in the court of public opinion. The state is four years behind on the payment to schools the taxpayers voted for in 2000. Ducey, Biggs and Gowan say, we’re not planning to make any back payments. Let’s forget about that, wipe out the billion-plus dollars we owe. We’ll start paying now, at seventy cents on the dollar. Actually, the payments won’t start now. They’ll start a year from now. And, really, we can’t guarantee we’ll start making payments then. That’ll only happen if the voters say it’s OK. If the voters approve the deal we’re offering them, most of the money won’t come out of our pockets: the state budget. It’ll come out of early payments from the state land trust fund which was set up to help pay for our children’s educations now and in the future. Oh, and we’ll only keep paying if we can afford it. If in the future our income drops, either because the state economy suffers from bad times or we deplete our coffers by giving tax breaks to our rich friends, we’ll stop payment.

That doesn’t sound like a “monumental” solution to me. It doesn’t sound like Ducey, Biggs and Gowan plan to “put our kids and teachers first.” It sounds like deadbeat dads paying as little as they can get away with, and with no guarantee they’ll keep making the payments.

#deadbeat. #ArizonaEducation.

This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.

10 replies on “The Deadbeat Dads Ducey Didn’t Talk About in the State of the State Address”

  2. What about the “DeadBeat MOMS”??? There’s is plenty of them.

    Didn’t mention Jodi Arias that started a movement of women killing men!!!

  3. Ducey’s rhetoric sounds like it was cooked up by Arpaio’s soon to be ex flack, Lisa Allen. Prop 123 looks like pink underwear, looks like you are real tough, but the reality is it is nonsense. Ducey will obviously do anything, say anything, to preserve tax breaks for his pals, and fund transfers from the everywhere and everybody to avoid paying school, JTED’s, community colleges, and university ties what is owed them.

  4. Nice Joe… talk about some BS textbooks from Common Core to justify under-funding public schools. Yea, cus Kids these days don’t need textbooks or paper or pens or physical education or music or… hell… let’s just make em come to a shack with no chalk or chalkboard. That will improve our education system…?
    47th in the union and counting.

  6. I hate the term DEADBEAT DAD, the governor better check out parental alienation first. Fathers have no rights in this state. I went through a horrible divorce, after being ordered to pay child support my ex got me fired from my job, then she called CPS and with no evidence of anything I was kept from seeing my kids. I fought CPS three times and won each time, each time I was kept from my kids for a year. Finally I have my sons but my ex was never ordered to pay support, and she does nothing to help. Governor better consider parental alienation and women that don’t pay. I hope someone sues over this

  7. So ‘deadbeat parents’ are not a problem? Pima County Attorney LaWall thought so, so much so that she took over the payment system.

    My granddaughters (not by birth) birth-father made two payments, both because he wanted out of jail. Remember that plan? She will be 17 soon and no attempt has been made to make him pay up.

    Thanks LaWall.

    Maybe Ducey’s plan will not work, but then again, maybe it will help. This is not the first time government has used an embarrassment strategy.

  8. If the American people used common since it would go a long ways. It takes two people to make a baby so both should take responsibility in the cost of raising the child, not everybody else.

  10. Stupid article. All the author wants is more $. Bullshit. We pay and pay and get shit for it. We need to reduce funding for schools, not increase it. Let them earn it.

Comments are closed.