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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's 9,517 divorces in 2003 cost the state nearly $124 million and the federal government about $173 million in child support, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs, according to the state's marriage commission.
Gov. Jon Huntsman and Brigham Young Family Life professor Alan Hawkins laid out the cost of divorce to taxpayers at the commission's annual meeting Saturday at Cottonwood High School.
"Divorces cost the federal government $33 billion a year (nationally). Think of that number, then think about the other things that money could be spent on," Huntsman told several hundred conference attendees.
Hawkins, a marriage commission member, says those kinds of costs are what prompted the creation of the commission in 1998 -- the first of its kind in the nation. He said the group played an active role in the creation of the minimum-age marriage bill passed several years ago, as well as producing a Web site, booklets and training for marriage counselors and instructors for the commission's prevention and relationship enhancement program.
This year the commission is pushing House Bill 8, sponsored by Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake City, which would offer couples a break on their marriage fees if they first take a marriage class.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
