Costs and Fairness of Child Support Considered

                Separately in recent weeks, Dutchess County has been considering the gigantic cost to house inmates at the county jail, and the increasing costs of indigent counsel at Family Court including the approved proposal to utilize public defenders in family court matters. I married these two issues together in asking jail administrators about the jail census. I learned that approximately one inmate per day at the County jail is there because he (mostly men) failed to pay child support. This was disturbing to learn since county jailing costs are so high due to overcrowding (we pay $6million a year to house out inmates to other counties). Not to mention there seems something archaic about using the county jail as a debtor’s prison. It also seems largely counter-productive to detain someone for non-payment, when the detention prevents them from working to pay down the debt. Presently attorneys are not assigned to poor people in child support matters. With the new public defender model coming to Family Court, I have requested that public defenders look into unpaid child support cases in an attempt to keep county taxpayer costs at the jail from rising further.

                The topic got me thinking. In the Eighteenth Century support for children was considered a moral, but not a legal duty. Not so today. In 1975, the U.S. Congress enacted federal-state child support enforcement. Their goals were to reduce childhood poverty and reduce the welfare rolls. Congress assured States that they would be compensated with federal funds under TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) if they aggressively established paternity (goal of 90 percent) and set up systems for child support collection. Congress underscored child support programs as priorities in 1988 and again in 1993. How successful this system meets its goal is up to debate. In 1975, 17 percent of children under 18 lived below the poverty line. In 2009, that number was 20 percent.

                At the same time, there are arguments that Child Support Guidelines are actually causing poverty of the non-custodial parent by in essence creating net wealth transfers amounting to unintentional spousal support. Elsewhere child support provisions are blamed for disrupting fathers’ relationships with the children. In particular child support provisions are being blamed for harming the re-entry into society of veterans and recently discharged military.

                In 2009, a Veterans Affairs survey to veterans indicated legal assistance for child support as their second (out of 42) unmet needs (affordable child care was number one). The VA identified that often times support payments are set when a veteran is on active duty pay, but never readjusted when he ceases to be on active duty (and thus lower rate of pay). The VA reported a high number of veterans facing garnishment of their paychecks at 65% for unpaid child support. Additionally the interest rate on arrears (9% in New York) has not been adjusted to reflect current time value of money. Clearly there are policy considerations that should be examined beyond the welfare of the child. Let’s hope that in Dutchess County that public defenders or veterans affairs counselors soon take the first step towards reviewing support formulas for fairness.

Michael Kelsey represents Amenia, Washington, Stanford, Pleasant Valley and the Village of Millbrook in the Dutchess County Legislature. Write him at KelseyESQ@yahoo.com.

Posted by Mike Kelsey at 1/16/2012 11:41 PM
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