Changes Sought In Child Support

August 2001

The last of five hearings on child support took place across the state last month as the result of a federally mandated, statewide review process.

Hearings took place in Boston, Brockton, Worcester, Lawrence and Springfield. This is the first time since the inception of the Child Support Guideline in 1985 that the process has been open to the public. Barbara A. Dortch-Okara, the Chief Justice of Administration and Management of the Trial Court, is administering the process.

At the hearings, fathers’ rights advocates noted that the Massachusetts Guideline unfairly burdens them and their children. They assert that it fails to address the real needs of children of divorce because it fails to address the needs of children at the non-custodial parent’s (overwhelmingly the father’s) household.

According to several studies, the Mass. Guideline is the highest in the nation, and in several instances fully outside the Normal Distribution curve of other states’ guidelines throughout the United States.

Judge Ginsburg Misses Message

At the close of the hearing in Brockton, Judge Edward Ginsburg, presiding over the court panel, said that out of the 240 “angry” people heard at his Probate and Family Court on one morning, “most of them were still angry” when they left.

“You can’t make everybody happy, it’s impossible,” Ginsburg said.

But Earl Henry Sholley of the Fatherhood Coalition, a statewide non-profit fathers’ advocacy group, criticized those remarks as an example of what’s wrong with the system.

“It’s not a question of making people happy, it’s a question of equity and fairness,” Sholley said.

“What hurts fathers hurts the children eventually,” he said. “Driving non-custodial parents into bankruptcy, suicide or poverty is not in the best interest of the children.”

After the fourth hearing in Lawrence, Judge Ginsburg retorted, “The only thing we will get out of this process is everyone more angry.”

Sholley says that Judge Ginsburg was the judge whose custody/visitation order precipitated the notorious Stephen Fagan child kidnapping case over two decades ago. At the time, under temporary orders during the Fagan divorce, Judge Ginsburg transferred sole physical custody to Fagan’s wife despite copious evidence presented by Fagan that she was incapable of properly caring for the children due to her alcoholism and emotional problems.

Changes Are Needed

The Fatherhood Coalition produced Recommendations for changes to the state Child Support Guideline.

“The present Guideline doesn’t provide for the best interests of children of divorce because it fails to adequately address the child’s needs in the father’s household,” said Mark Charalambous, the coalition’s spokesman. “The Guideline is flawed from every angle,” he said and cited the following.

Following a family breakup, two households are created from one, but the Guideline holds as a “guiding principle” that the standard of living of the children remained unchanged. The household without custody must survive on roughly 25% of their income, consequently often reduced to poverty, except for high-income wage earners. Clearly, the children cannot be adequately provided for at the household of the non-custodial parent.
The Guideline provides for child support percentages (applied to non-custodial parent’s gross income) up to 33% for one child, 37% for two children, and 40% for three children. Additionally, the Guideline does not award the NCP (overwhelmingly the father) the tax exemption(s) for his children. The NCP father pays the tax on the child support which is deducted off the top of his gross income at the single-payer rate. Child support is given to the custodial parent (overwhelmingly the mother) tax-free.
The NCP is further penalized if he seeks to raise his standard of living by taking a second job or working overtime. All income, no matter from what source, will be assessed at the child support-established percentage until his child reaches 23 years of age. “It’s no wonder so many of the state’s non-custodial fathers are living in their cars and on the street,” Charalambous said. “Many of them are transformed into criminals and often jailed because of their inability to pay these exorbitant child support awards.”

The Coalition’s Recommendations include a non-custodial parenting time adjustment that takes into account the amount of time that the children spend with a parent at the NCP household. The Recommendations are available online at the Fatherhood Coalition web site: www.fatherhoodcoalition.org/cpf/2001/CSGuidelineRecommendations2001.htm.