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Owing the state money and holding a state license has in most cases become an either-or proposition.

Nearly 800 licensed professionals in Iowa, ranging from architects to veterinarians, will soon receive a letter ordering them to pay delinquent debts they owe the state or lose their professional licenses. Collectively, those individuals owe the state more than $8 million in unpaid court fines, delinquent taxes and unpaid Iowa Department of Natural Resources fees.

Under legislation signed by Gov. Chet Culver last year, state agencies are now required to suspend or revoke the professional licenses of people who owe the state money and do not make arrangements to pay within 20 days of receiving notification to pay.

The measure, Senate File 2428, also applies to holders of hunting licenses as well as bar and restaurant owners who have been issued liquor licenses, which brings the total of delinquent payments to more than $30.7 million owed by 4,562 state license holders.

“I think it will provide the leverage for that small fraction of (professional) license holders who have elected not to take care of their responsibilities,” said Wayne Cooper, manager of the state’s Central Collections Unit (CCU). “The good news is that less than 1 percent of (the 618,767 professional license holders) are on the list. We were hoping it would be a small number, and it was. I think that speaks well for the state of Iowa.”

In other categories, about 1 percent of the more than 332,000 hunters licensed by the state risk losing their hunting licenses for unpaid debts. More than 3,500 hunters, who collectively owe the state $18.2 million, will be sent collection letters. Also, 209 liquor license holders who owe the state $4.4 million will have to come up with that money quickly to retain their licenses.

Cooper said the new collections law does not apply to holders of individual driver’s licenses. It is applicable to commercial driver’s license holders, but the CCU does not intend to pursue revocation of those licenses for unpaid debts at this time, he said.

Eileen Gloor, chief of the Iowa Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Professional Licensure, said her agency will provide a total of 90 days from the time it receives a certificate of noncompliance from the Department of Revenue before it would suspend a license. The agency licenses approximately 44,000 health-related professionals through 19 boards.

The bureau, which already uses a similar procedure for licensees with delinquent child-support payments, in 2008 responded to about 10 certificates of noncompliance resulting in two license suspensions.

The CCU, which is responsible for collecting delinquent debts of $1,000 or more, has in the past six months recovered $55.5 million. However, state agencies in that same period placed an additional $303.8 million in delinquent debt with the CCU.

Letters will begin going out to license holders early February.