GothicAngel
Member
What is the name of your state? PA 
Posted in Courts and Legislatures by ANCPR on the October 10th, 2005
Child support to fall for many Pa. parents
New guidelines mean up to 30 percent decrease for some
Monday, October 10, 2005
By Mike Bucsko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Come late January, parents who receive child support may find less money in their monthly support checks.
That’s because the state Supreme Court recently adopted new child support guidelines that decrease the support obligation for the majority of parents, especially those in the upper income levels.
The effect will be significant for some parents, with decreases of as much as 30 percent.
For example, under the old guidelines, the support obligation for parents with two children and a combined monthly income of $10,000 was $2,312. The support obligation under the new guidelines is $1,840, a difference of $472.
“I actually think it’s going to have a pretty dramatic negative impact on a lot of households,” said family lawyer Mary Sue Ramsden, of the Downtown law firm Raphael Ramsden Behers. “In some cases, it may just be a couple hundred dollars, but there are people out there for whom a couple hundred dollars would make a big difference.”
The new guidelines were adopted by the Supreme Court on Sept. 27 and will take effect Jan. 27.
In addition to the decrease, the Supreme Court adopted another significant change in the guidelines that will raise the income threshold on the guideline grid from $15,000 to $20,000. The increase will add predictability to the support formula because more parents will be able to use the grid in their support obligation calculation, Ms. Ramsden said.
Previously, parents with monthly incomes of more than $15,000 had to use a cumbersome and time-consuming calculation called a Melzer analysis. After January, the Melzer analysis will be used for parents with monthly incomes of more than $20,000.
Federal law requires Pennsylvania and other states to review the support guidelines every four years. That process in Pennsylvania began in early 2003 with an examination of the guidelines by the Supreme Court’s Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee.
The court adopted the committee’s guidelines, which also included several other changes, about two weeks ago after a lengthy comment period.
The general assumption underlying the guideline calculations is that children of separated or divorced parents should receive the same amount of economic support as if the parents lived together, called the Income Shares Model.
The changes to the economic support calculations were based partly on a national study of the costs of raising children by David M. Betson, an economics professor at Notre Dame. The state also used Mr. Betson’s research, developed for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and used by two-thirds of the states, for the previous review in 1999.
When Mr. Betson updated his research four years ago, the cost of child-rearing expenses decreased, said Robert Capristo, the Pittsburgh family lawyer who chaired the Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee. The 2001 figures in Mr. Betson’s study were updated in 2003 to reflect cost-of-living increases, and those figures were used by the committee.
“I guess the percentage of the budget of families has gone down in recent years, common expenses, housing, for example,” Mr. Capristo said. “It’s all based on statistics.”
Mr. Betson’s calculations decreased and caused the committee to recommend commensurate changes to the support guidelines grid. But the costs of daily life for most parents will not decrease when their support payments are reduced.
“The reasoning behind the change is that the last time we did this we were basing this on data that was accurate at that time, and life changed since then,” said family lawyer Carol Mills McCarthy, whose office is Downtown.
“You have to have guidelines that are supported by data, and this is the data. It’s absolutely correct that your expenses didn’t go down. It doesn’t cost less between December of ‘05 and January of ‘06 [when the new guidelines take effect].”
Some lawyers are skeptical of the Betson research because of the dramatic downward adjustment in the support guidelines at some income levels.
“Either the old guidelines are right or the new guidelines are right, but there needs to be an explanation which,” said lawyer Catherine McFadden, of the Philadelphia office of Schader Harrison Segal and Lewis, who wrote an article on the guideline changes last year for the Pennsylvania Family Lawyer and has written extensively about child support and other family law issues.
But since the Supreme Court adopted the committee’s recommendations, the guidelines are here to stay for at least the next four or five years.
It could have been worse, family lawyers said.
The court rejected a more sweeping committee recommendation that would have dramatically altered the support formula based on the amount of time parents spend with their children. The proposal would have required calculations as small as four hours and could have reduced the support obligation of some parents by as much as 97 percent.
The proposal was opposed by many bar associations, including Allegheny County.
“It would have been a nightmare,” said Ms. Ramsden, secretary of the bar association’s Family Law Section.
——————————————————————————–
(Mike Bucsko can be reached at mbucsko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1732.)
Posted in Courts and Legislatures by ANCPR on the October 10th, 2005
Child support to fall for many Pa. parents
New guidelines mean up to 30 percent decrease for some
Monday, October 10, 2005
By Mike Bucsko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Come late January, parents who receive child support may find less money in their monthly support checks.
That’s because the state Supreme Court recently adopted new child support guidelines that decrease the support obligation for the majority of parents, especially those in the upper income levels.
The effect will be significant for some parents, with decreases of as much as 30 percent.
For example, under the old guidelines, the support obligation for parents with two children and a combined monthly income of $10,000 was $2,312. The support obligation under the new guidelines is $1,840, a difference of $472.
“I actually think it’s going to have a pretty dramatic negative impact on a lot of households,” said family lawyer Mary Sue Ramsden, of the Downtown law firm Raphael Ramsden Behers. “In some cases, it may just be a couple hundred dollars, but there are people out there for whom a couple hundred dollars would make a big difference.”
The new guidelines were adopted by the Supreme Court on Sept. 27 and will take effect Jan. 27.
In addition to the decrease, the Supreme Court adopted another significant change in the guidelines that will raise the income threshold on the guideline grid from $15,000 to $20,000. The increase will add predictability to the support formula because more parents will be able to use the grid in their support obligation calculation, Ms. Ramsden said.
Previously, parents with monthly incomes of more than $15,000 had to use a cumbersome and time-consuming calculation called a Melzer analysis. After January, the Melzer analysis will be used for parents with monthly incomes of more than $20,000.
Federal law requires Pennsylvania and other states to review the support guidelines every four years. That process in Pennsylvania began in early 2003 with an examination of the guidelines by the Supreme Court’s Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee.
The court adopted the committee’s guidelines, which also included several other changes, about two weeks ago after a lengthy comment period.
The general assumption underlying the guideline calculations is that children of separated or divorced parents should receive the same amount of economic support as if the parents lived together, called the Income Shares Model.
The changes to the economic support calculations were based partly on a national study of the costs of raising children by David M. Betson, an economics professor at Notre Dame. The state also used Mr. Betson’s research, developed for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and used by two-thirds of the states, for the previous review in 1999.
When Mr. Betson updated his research four years ago, the cost of child-rearing expenses decreased, said Robert Capristo, the Pittsburgh family lawyer who chaired the Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee. The 2001 figures in Mr. Betson’s study were updated in 2003 to reflect cost-of-living increases, and those figures were used by the committee.
“I guess the percentage of the budget of families has gone down in recent years, common expenses, housing, for example,” Mr. Capristo said. “It’s all based on statistics.”
Mr. Betson’s calculations decreased and caused the committee to recommend commensurate changes to the support guidelines grid. But the costs of daily life for most parents will not decrease when their support payments are reduced.
“The reasoning behind the change is that the last time we did this we were basing this on data that was accurate at that time, and life changed since then,” said family lawyer Carol Mills McCarthy, whose office is Downtown.
“You have to have guidelines that are supported by data, and this is the data. It’s absolutely correct that your expenses didn’t go down. It doesn’t cost less between December of ‘05 and January of ‘06 [when the new guidelines take effect].”
Some lawyers are skeptical of the Betson research because of the dramatic downward adjustment in the support guidelines at some income levels.
“Either the old guidelines are right or the new guidelines are right, but there needs to be an explanation which,” said lawyer Catherine McFadden, of the Philadelphia office of Schader Harrison Segal and Lewis, who wrote an article on the guideline changes last year for the Pennsylvania Family Lawyer and has written extensively about child support and other family law issues.
But since the Supreme Court adopted the committee’s recommendations, the guidelines are here to stay for at least the next four or five years.
It could have been worse, family lawyers said.
The court rejected a more sweeping committee recommendation that would have dramatically altered the support formula based on the amount of time parents spend with their children. The proposal would have required calculations as small as four hours and could have reduced the support obligation of some parents by as much as 97 percent.
The proposal was opposed by many bar associations, including Allegheny County.
“It would have been a nightmare,” said Ms. Ramsden, secretary of the bar association’s Family Law Section.
——————————————————————————–
(Mike Bucsko can be reached at mbucsko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1732.)
And furthermore, if the child needs to live at the same level that they would if both parents lived together, then let them live with the richest parent. Why should one parent profit off of the other parents salary?