Falling significantly behind on child support payments is about to hit a few thousand Texans squarely on the windshield - and potentially lead to some frustrated folks in local tax offices.

Effective in December, anyone who has missed child support payments for six consecutive months will have to resume payments before renewing their vehicle registration. The goal is to encourage more compliance with child support obligations, said Janece Rolfe, spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's Office's child support division.

"We see this as an incentive to get money to their children," Rolfe said, noting existing rules that revoke drivers' licenses and professional licenses when child support payments lag. "Certainly it is not our desire to take away anyone's driving privileges."

Despite supporting efforts to collect child support debts, there are skeptics to the new plan to tie court-ordered payments to vehicle renewals, notably local tax assessor-collectors who worry they will receive the brunt of the blame for denied registrations.

"This is an administrative office. We are now being directed to act as enforcement for the Texas Attorney General and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles and that concerns me," Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan said in a statement.

Sullivan said he fears longer wait times and more people driving without valid registrations as a result of the rule change.

About 1.5 million families in Texas have a financial child support arrangement in place with a court. Though officials are not certain of the total number of delinquent cases at any moment, Rolfe said officials estimate between 1,000 and 2,000 registrations per month to be held up because of a lack of child support payment. Those estimates represent between 1.6 and 3.2 percent of the total of court-supervised or court-ordered child support agreements.

Of those, only a handful are extreme cases, such as the 16 "child support evaders" listed online by the Attorney General's Office. Those 15 men and one woman owe thousands, including Tomas Roman, whose last address was Houston, who tops the list by owing $206,453 in delinquent child support, according to officials.

Vehicle owners are typically reminded about upcoming registrations more than 90 days in advance of their renewal deadline. For registrations expiring at the end of December, those reminders will be mailed starting Sept. 1. Rolfe said upcoming vehicle renewals will include a warning for those who are behind on child support payments.

Renewing doesn't require someone behind on payments to erase the entire debt, but make efforts and enter into a payment plan. A $200 minimum payment is common to enter into any payment plan via the AG's Office, and rarely requires a return to court or any additional fees.

"As soon as a payment is arranged, the hold will be released," Rolfe said.

She said officials as part of sweeping family court rules have had the authority to deny vehicle renewals, but only recently have technological improvements with motor vehicle records made denial possible.

Suspending drivers licenses, Rolfe said, has proved successful in getting some people to pay delinquent support, though records are not kept on how many parents pay after the revocation of a driving or professional license such as a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission permit. Recreational licenses such as fishing and hunting licenses can also be denied based on failure to pay child support.

Some, however, question the effectiveness of some rules.

"I'm for anything that the government can do to get them to pay, but the likelihood someone is going to pay to get their license renewed, to me, is slim," said Terry Elizondo, who practiced family law in Houston and was an associate municipal judge in Southside Place for 13 years. "I find it highly unlikely they will be able to pay unless they get in their car to go to work."