NPO: Virginia Bill Would Increase Excessive Child-Support Obligations by Ignoring Economic Realities

Article here. Excerpt:

'The bill, HB 933 introduced in Virginia’s House of Delegates would increase the state’s child-support schedule, would further increase child-support obligations that are already excessive for many (but not all) non-custodial parents. The “bill is a recommendation of the Child Support Guidelines Review Panel,” whose proposed child-support increase ignores basic economic realities and overestimates the cost of raising children. It also appears to double-count expenses and make non-custodial parents pay custodial parents for costs that custodial parents have indirectly been reimbursed for by federal and state tax codes. It would force some low-income parents to pay what they cannot possibly pay, and substantially increase high-income parents’ obligations based on a misreading of Virginia child-support history and a likely failure to consider tax increases recently imposed on upper-income households.

(Before I proceed any further, I should note that I have no conflict of interest here: I am not divorced, and do not owe, pay or receive child support, and am raising my daughter with my wife, to whom I remain happily married. And although I am a lawyer, I don’t practice family law in Virginia. So I will not be affected by the proposed child-support increase.)'