New Hampshire Seeks to Change Child Support Formulas

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

This is Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. New Hampshire lawmakers are considering a plan to dramatically cut how much divorced parents pay in child support. If you're divorced, here's how the proposal would work, you would owe less money when you spend more time with your kids.

Here's NPR's Tovia Smith.

TOVIA SMITH, reporting: Supporters of the bill say child support orders no longer reflect today's reality, that parents often share custody of their kids. Gone are the days when moms would automatically get the kids fulltime, and the so called play dads would take them every other Sunday for pizza.

Mr. DALE TESCH(ph): Hi guys.

Unidentified Male Child: Hi.

Mr. TESCH: How you doing? Come on in. Put your seatbelts on.

SMITH: Two years after splitting with his wife, Dale Tesch says he's now splitting the job of parenting their three young children. He gets the kids every other week for the week. That means picking up from school, making dinner, helping with homework, and everything in between.

Unidentified Child: I don't want to sit in the middle, daddy.

Mr. TESCH: Take it down a notch guys, alright? Hands to ourselves, Golden Rule remember.

SMITH: While he's got his fair share of parenting time, Tesch says he's paying way more than his fair share of child support. He sends his ex-wife 40 percent of net income, about $2000 a month. And he says that's too much, considering all the time that the kids spend with him.

Mr. TESCH: If she is only going to have them half of the time, she should only get half of the support. You know, that's what's not fair about it.

SMITH: Under the New Hampshire bill Tesch's child support would be cut in half.

The bill's sponsor, Republican State Representative David Bickford, says it's not fair that a dad like Tesch has to pay mom at the same time he's paying for the kids to live with him.

DAVID BICKFORD (Republican State Representative, New Hampshire): There's a double taxation here. He's paying child support for the time the children are with him, and nobody's paying him.

SMITH: About half the states have some provisions that either allow or require reduced child support payments in cases of joint custody, but the New Hampshire cuts would be more severe, and they would also apply more broadly. So even a once a month visit would trigger a discount. It's a prospect that's provoking a storm of opposition.

State Representative MARY STUART GILE (Democrat, New Hampshire): I think it's a terrible way of looking at parenting a child.

SMITH: Democratic State Representative Mary Stuart Gile.

State Rep. GILE: When it comes down to, well you have him for a weekend so I don't have to pay for that, it is offensive.

SMITH: New Hampshire judges already have the discretion to reduce payments in cases of joint custody, when they see fit. And New Hampshire family law attorney Brecky Hayes-Snow says that does happen, but she says a per diem reduction would be foolish since the cost of raising kids doesn't neatly correlate with parenting time. Besides, she says, automatically linking the two is a recipe for disaster.

Ms. BRECKY HAYES-SNOW (Family Law Attorney): Instead of making decisions about what is best for a child based on what is best for the child, they will be influenced by what is going to take out of their pocket. It's like well, if I just get one more night a week, then that's going to have this big impact on what I have to pay.

SMITH: Lawyers in other states say they see it happen. A parent petitions for more time, gets to pay less money and then ends up leaving the kids with grandparents or not taking them at all.

Mr. TESCH: I'll open it for you, set up here at the counter. You know the rules. Come on. Are you ready to get your hair done by Aunt Roberta?

SMITH: Divorced dad Dale Tesch cringes at the suggestion that father's motives are purely financial or selfish. Yes, he says, some people will find a way to abuse any system, but he insists his fight is about his kids.

Mr. TESCH: Unfortunately, the children, they want to know why dad isn't able to take them here, take them there, can we go out to dinner, take them on a vacation, take them down to Disneyland. You know, Dad how come you don't take us down to Disneyland. They don't get to do that with me.

SMITH: Ultimately Tesch supports an even more radical change to New Hampshire's child support laws. He'd like to see payments based on what it actually costs to raise a child instead of just a percent of a parent's income. A legislative commission has just put that proposal on hold, the economist hired to come up with a formula was fired, after officials learned he'd served time for failing to pay child support.

Tovia Smith, NPR News.

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