The Center for Children's Justice - Pennsylvania Chapter

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday, February 20, 2002

CHILD SUPPORT State's guidelines should be revised by REP. EARL EHRHART

Last summer, I was a gubernatorial appointee to the state of Georgia's Commission on Child Support. Hundreds of Georgia residents testified in person and through letters and e-mail. More than 99 percent of them found problems with Georgia's present system of basing child support only on the noncustodial parent's before-tax income.

Even more damning was that for the second year in a row, a Georgia Bar Association poll showed that more than 70 percent of the attorneys practicing in the field favored changing Georgia's child support guidelines.

The greatest tragedy of Georgia's current system is that it sets children up as a cash prize in the divorce proceeding.

The guidelines completely ignore the income of the custodial parent. They assume the noncustodial parent is "absent" and has no parent time. In reality, the noncustodial parent typically has significant child care costs that should be factored in.

The guidelines also do not consider that the custodial parent typically receives $200 to $300 per month in after-tax income from child-related tax benefits without sharing them.

The best interest of the child is completely forgotten in the goal of one parent to get more money. Every economic expert that testified before the commission (and earlier commissions) stated that Georgia's child support guidelines significantly exceed actual child care costs -- creating a profit for whoever gets custody of the children.

I have introduced House Bill 672 with Rep. Ben Allen, a Democrat from Augusta. The legislation would base the child support award on net costs -- the actual cost of raising the child minus the child-related tax benefits. These net costs would be shared based on both parents' income, and the cost of both parents in caring for the child. The public realizes that the current guidelines make no economic sense. Legislators need to catch up with the public.

As this debate rages through the Georgia Legislature, we will hear tragic stories on both sides of the divorce coin. We must step back from this hyperbole as lawmakers and change Georgia's support guidelines, ending this child civil rights tragedy in our state.

State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), is House Republican Whip.

© 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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This web site is strictly for your information about what is happening in our state; Pennsylvania.  Information and opinions on this website are NOT "legal" advice but ARE friendly advice from people who have been through the local domestic relations office and are very familiar with the crimes against humanity that office is getting away with strictly for PROFIT at the expense of fathers and their children.  Feel free to copy and repost any information on this site unless said information is credited to a web site other than Pennsylvania Family Court Reform (this website).  In this case, you must ask permission from the author, and since it's been our experience that most of the people that support our cause are good people, they most likely won't have a problem with it.  It's time to reclaim our state and our rights as Americans that are being trampled and ignored by a select portion of our state government, who's sole interest is PROFIT from federal grants for "child support" collection, at our expense... our JUDICIAL branch.