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Panel backs ‘income shares’ child-support model despite implementation concerns
Summary
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance House Bill 18-02 to adopt an income-shares child-support model for Arkansas, while judges and practitioners warned that implementing the model will take time, technical staff and a computer model to produce accurate charts and to meet federal chart-review timelines.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance House Bill 18-02, which authorizes Arkansas to move to an income-shares child-support model widely used in other states. Supporters said the model is fairer because it accounts for both parents’ incomes; critics and court practitioners warned the transition will be complex and resource intensive.
Representative Lowry, the bill sponsor, said many states have adopted the income-shares approach and that the administrative office of the courts and the judicial council back the change. Judge Mackey Pierce, who chaired the Supreme Court Committee on child support for years, told senators the effort has taken years and requires a consultant and a computer model to create revised charts. ‘‘It is not going to be simply adopted and simply done,’’ Pierce said. He noted Illinois had taken more than a decade to implement a similar model and cautioned that March 1, 2020, as an implementation milestone would require accelerated work (Judge Mackey Pierce).
Committee members repeatedly asked how revisions to the family-support chart would be produced and whether the Supreme Court and administrative offices can meet the time frame. Pierce said federal law requires chart consideration at least every four years and described ongoing procurement for an expert to build the computational model needed for the income-shares approach; the administrative office of the courts has produced a revised draft of administrative order number 10 to reflect the new model.
The committee limited debate by unanimous consent, heard additional explanation from Pierce and Representative Lowry, and then adopted the measure by voice vote. Supporters said the bill authorizes the model and allows the Supreme Court and administrative offices to finalize computational and administrative work before operational rollout to judges and clerks.
What happens next: The bill authorizes the state’s move to income shares; implementation details — the consultant contract, computer model creation, and any statutory edits required to move from a pay-or-payee system to income shares — remain to be completed by the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Judicial Council.
Speakers attributed in this article are those recorded in the committee transcript.
