Washington County’s district attorney is not happy with the county’s proposed 2025-26 budget that would slice 19 full-time equivalent positions in the Child Support Division of his office.

The Child Support Division helps establish and collect child support orders, including services like establishing paternity, modifying child support orders and collecting child support funds. But because of a $20.5 million deficit in the county’s budget next year, these services may be going away at the county level.

“I very strongly object to this change,” District Attorney Kevin Barton said. “I think it’s ultimately not a good thing for the community and really would prefer that the county not cut public safety budgets, in particular the D.A. budget, but we are in the situation that we’re in.”

Barton said 19 people are in the Child Support Division, 16 of whom are not lawyers but child support enforcement personnel. If the county commission gives final approval to the budget in June, Barton says child support services would still be offered, but by the Oregon Department of Justice.

“That division is entirely going away,” Barton said of the county child support division.  “They (families) would still be served; there will be a resource for them, an office for them to go to. There would be a governmental body that does the work … they would no longer go to the Washington County D.A.’s office, they would go to a state office and they would essentially follow the process the state has.”

In touting the county child support office, Barton cited a comparison between what the county collects in child support with what the Oregon Department of Justice offers.

Barton said the 19 layoffs shift child support collection responsibilities to the state, which will result in a dramatically different level of service for Washington County families.

Numbers from 2024 show that the county’s Child Support Division collected $26.25 million in child support payments while the Hillsboro office of the Oregon Department of Justice collected $19.25 million.

That equates to an average of $2,126 per case at the Hillsboro DOJ office compared with a per case average of $6,351 for the county child support office. Last year, over $26 million for Washington County families was collected.

Barton said there’s a reason why district attorney offices house child support divisions — at least for now.

“There’s a direct connection between stable homes for kids and public safety,” he said. “I look at our Child Support Division, and it’s crime prevention. The more stable we can make the home environment for a child, the greater the likelihood that that child will grow up to become a productive, law-abiding member of our community. A dollar invested in child support is a dollar well spent.”