Laws may up child support

• By SARAH CHACKO
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jul 14, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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New child support laws passed this year by the Louisiana Legislature could mean an increase in the financial commitment paying parents make to their children.

State lawmakers debated more than a dozen bills relating to the management of children after their parents break up. Nine were approved by the legislators and ended up on the governor’s desk.

“Child support has a very significant impact on people today,” Robbie Endris, executive director of the Department of Social Services’ Support Enforcement Services Division.

It is typical during a nonfiscal regular session, which is every other year, for lawmakers to push a number of changes to the laws governing child support, she said.

One of the bills that made it into law allows judges to add special expenses for camps, music lessons and sports to child-support obligations.

Tamithia Shaw, co-chair of the child-support guidelines review committee, which recommended the legislation as part of its quadrennial report this year, said her committee found that after a divorce, the noncustodial parent is less willing to pay for activities.

Judges already had the discretion to add support for extra activities, but they felt reluctant to do so, she said.

“They didn’t feel they had the right to add that,” Shaw said.

“We’re really trying to address those situations where they refuse to pay anything,” said state Rep. Joseph Lopinto, R-Metairie and sponsor of House Bill 339.

As it was being considered in the Legislature, some senators argued the bill could create an excessive financial burden on those paying child support.

Lopinto said judges still get discretion in determining what a reasonable request is to provide support.

HB339 also gives the court the option, in cases where the monthly income of the parent exceeds $30,000, to place a portion of the obligation in a trust for the child.

Lopinto said some people, like professional athletes, get large incomes for a short amount of time. When they no longer have that income, their child support obligation drops, he said.