Legislators kill child-support changes

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 21, 2008 - Page: 6A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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It took four years for lawyers to craft legislation that would level child support payments for parents supporting children in multiple families.

It took two hours for legislators to kill the measure Tuesday.

Members of the Senate Judiciary A Committee deferred Senate Bill 605 after a prolonged discussion Tuesday.

Committee Chairwoman Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, said the legislation touches on the state’s public policy on marriage.

“We don’t want the children to suffer, but at the same time I don’t want to embark on a path that doesn’t give any incentive for marriage,” Quinn said.

Supporters of the bill said the legislation had nothing to do with marriage policy because it proposed an equalization of child support payments, not taking into account if the children in question were born in wedlock or not.

“It’s best that children be treated equal,” said Sen. Derrick Shepherd, sponsor of SB605.

Shepherd, D-Marrero, said the measure is needed to eliminate the “race to the courthouse” that current law allows.

For example, a man has two children with two women. Whichever mother files for child support first, the court uses the father’s income at that point to calculate the child support payment.

Then, if the other mother goes to file for child support, the father’s now-diminished income will be used to calculate that child support payment.

So, whoever files for child support first gets the largest payment, Shepherd said.

Quinn also raised concern that the calculation for child support payments proposed in the bill was based on both parents sharing the financial burden of raising the child equally. Quinn said splitting the cost in half may be fair in cases where the custody is shared equally as well.

But if one parent has full custody of the child, that parent does not have the same earning power as the non-custodial parent and the cost should be divided by a different percentage, she said.