But not all officials are looking forward to the paperwork the new law could create.
Under the new law, all public agencies and public utilities must provide addresses and other information that will help a child-support agency find deadbeat parents.
Employers also will have to register new hires with the state. Currently, the state requires companies with 25 or more employees to register. Using such data, Franklin County found more than 9,000 people last year who owed support.
As small companies begin registering their employees, that task will become easier, said Heath MacAlpine, deputy director of the Franklin County Child Support Enforcement Agency.
"The smaller companies are where more jobs are being created," MacAlpine told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published on Tuesday.
The law, which was passed in August, also makes it easier for the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services to take payments out of unemployment benefits.
"We've had a lot of problems _ they were not honoring our withholding orders in the past," Joe Pilat, director of the county child support agency, said of the bureau.
The custodial parent may get up to half a person's unemployment benefit.
And in a year or two, when Ohio's computerized tracking system goes online, a child-support agency will be able to freeze the savings accounts of deadbeat parents and withdraw money.
The law also authorizes counties to revoke more than 140 kinds of professional licenses _ including those of barbers, doctors and lawyers. Current law requires an agency to prove that the licensed person has failed to comply with an order. The new law allows agencies to revoke the license if the professional is uncooperative and refuses to comply with warrants or subpoenas.
County agencies also will have broad power to attach liens to property owned by a nonpaying parent. But that has led some recorders and common pleas court clerks to ask for limits.
Franklin County Recorder Richard Metcalf said the intent may be good, but that the law could create headaches for consumers and his office.
"Anytime anyone buys a used car, furniture ... anything from an individual, they will have to check here to see if a lien has been placed on the item," Metcalf said.
Federal mandates written into the state law will put Ohio on equal footing with all states in enforcing child-support orders. Often, states fought over which one's rules had to be enforced.
Now, states will not be able to supersede each other's authority. Support agencies in Ohio will be able to send wage-withholding orders directly to companies in other states, rather than through government agencies.
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