LA: House refuses child support payment changes - again

House refuses child support payment changes - again

The Associated Press
6/8/2004, 4:00 p.m. CT


BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The guidelines detailing the amount of child support
Louisiana parents pay will remain the same, after the House on Tuesday
rejected a proposal that could reduce some child support payments by up to
one-third.


It was the second time the House voted against the bill by Rep. Derrick
Shepherd, D-Marrero, as lawmakers complained it could harm Louisiana's
children.

Shepherd offered the bill for the state Department of Social Services to
revise the child support guidelines, which currently are based on 1973 data.
He said children's advocacy groups and the state's district attorneys
supported it.

It would drop some of the payments required of low income parents, but
Shepherd said it would keep in place the minimum payment of $100 per month
and wouldn't change any parents' current payment levels. A parent would have
to go back to court on another issue before the payment level could change.

Rep. Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe, said if the payment levels dropped, some
parents who otherwise might not make their child support payments could
possibly afford the reduced ones. "Something is better than nothing," he
said.

"We can bring child support up to $10,000 a month for some people, but if
they don't pay, the mother and the child still have issues and still are
struggling," Walsworth said.

Social services officials say the current guidelines that courts use to
establish child support payments are outdated and unrealistic given the
poverty of many of those required to pay them.

But Rep. Warren Triche, D-Thibodaux, said the changes could drop child
support payments in some cases by up to 36 percent, a hit to people's
household income that he said would make it hard to survive.

Shepherd only got 44 votes for his bill. It needed 53 to pass.

___

The bill is filed as House Bill 621 and can be found at
www.legis.state.la.us



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remains, no matter how improbable, must
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