Dear Mr. Bremer:
Support law comprises statutes, rule and case law. The legislature, in
enacting Pennsylvania's child support statute, directed the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania to establish statewide support guidelines by its rule-making
authority. The Supreme Court is assisted in this task by its Domestic Relations
Procedural Rules Committee, which is solely an advisory group. The committee
makes recommendations to the court in an on-going effort to provide uniformity
and fairness in support determinations. Pursuant to federal law, all states must
have child support guidelines that establish a presumptive amount of support.
However, the presumption is rebuttable and each case is decided on the evidence
presented. You are correct that no system is perfect and that one size does not
fit all. For that reason, the guidelines provide that courts have the authority
to deviate from the presumptive amount if the facts and circumstances support a
different result.
State and federal statutes require that the guidelines be reviewed at least
once every four years. Federal regulations further require that the review
include an assessment of the most recent economic data on child-rearing costs.
Late last year, the Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Child Support
Enforcement, contracted with Policy Studies, Inc. ("PSI") to provide
the economic expertise in the mandatory review of the guidelines that began this
year and is nearing completion. That organization has a great deal of expertise
in the Income Shares Model and Pennsylvania is one of 33 states to use that
model as the basis for its support guidelines. Jane Venohr, Ph.D., of PSI met
with the committee and DPW last spring.
In connection with its review of the guidelines, the committee studied the
economic estimates published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for
Nutrition Policy and Promotion ("CNPP"). However, the CNPP considers
only three income levels (high, middle and low) making it difficult to
extrapolate between income ranges. In addition, the CNPP uses average costs,
rather than marginal costs (i.e., how much more a childless family would have to
spend to maintain their lifestyle if they did have children). For these and
other reasons, we are not aware of any state that uses the CNPP estimates as the
basis of its child support schedule.
The Consumer Expenditure Surveys conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics provides the most detailed available source of data on household
expenditures. But this is just raw data. Various economic models are applied to
the data by the states in their guidelines. The estimates used in our current
guidelines were developed by Dr. David Betson, a professor of economics at the
University of Notre Dame, for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
with the specific purpose of assisting states in developing and revising their
child support guidelines. The proposed revisions to the guidelines are based
upon Dr. Betson's 2001 study, updated to 2003 price levels. In addition,
expenditures on child care, health insurance and extraordinary medical expenses
were deduced. Pennsylvania treats these costs separately, rather than in the
basic support schedule, so they are not counted twice.
The committee's proposal that resulted from the guidelines review will be
published for public comment within the next few weeks. It can be accessed on
the website of the Pennsylvania Bulletin (www.pabulletin.com). Please feel free
to share your thoughts. I can assure you that the committee reviews every
comment submitted.
Sincerely,
Patricia A. Miles
