Taxi driver pays full fare to state

The Washington Supreme Court issued a ruling last week that has a feel about it of debtor's prison. It is not prison really, but debtor's firing.

The case, Greg Amunrud vs. DSHS, was about a taxi driver who fell behind in child-support payments for his son. He was supposed to pay $350 a month. He started at $150 and, over time, paid less. The question before the court is whether state government could punish him by taking away his license to drive a cab. Justice Barbara Madsen said it could. Madsen, joined by justices Gerry Alexander, Susan Owens, Bobbe Bridge and Mary Fairhurst, said the government had good reason to want divorced or unmarried fathers to pay child support. One way to get them to pay was to threaten to take away their right to work. The program was effective, and the state should be allowed to keep it.

Justice Richard Sanders, joined by justices Jim Johnson and Tom Chambers, argued that if the state wanted this man to pay his bills, it made no sense to take away his right to earn money at his trade, which he had been practicing for 20 years.

Further, said Sanders, "We do not license drivers to assure they are current in child support payments; we license them to promote highway safety." The suspension of Amunrud's license had nothing to do with the purpose for which he was licensed.

It makes good sense to enforce the law against parents who persistently fail in their full obligation to make support payments. But this should be done without taking away a person's job, and without giving the state an extra hammer over all licensed professions relative to unlicensed ones.