Our legislature is in session and the committees are humming along.
Are there any issues you want to see addressed? Do you have any idea what is being addressed this year?
If you are not following along with your elected officials, you might want to wake up.
For instance, SB 1596 and its sister House Bill 1325 entitled “Alimony Reform” is heading to the Judiciary Committee: Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee and the Rules Committee.
I have no problems with Alimony “reform”. I never received alimony and in all honestly do not know the “in’s and out’s” of how that should work. I believe in fairness and justice. So true “reform” does not bother me.
BUT- what has been snuck into this bill bothers me a lot, this seemingly innocuous bill includes a mandate that family courts presume equal time sharing is in the best interest of the child and becomes Florida law by July 1, 2019.
I have a REAL problem with this because as a divorce survivor I know for a fact that 50/50 is not the cookie cutter solution it’s made out to be. And because it’s being “snuck in” to Florida law disguised in a bill about a completely different issue!
No, our family court crisis needs its own TRANSPARENT bill, that addresses all aspects of this issue: 50/50 requires that the parents can cooperate AND live in the same school district. Parents who can do this are usually NOT fighting it out in court.
Divorce is the most dysfunctional of situations, brought on by the worse in human behavior: betrayal, abuse of alcohol and drugs, physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse…
Is it now in the “best interest of the child” to be ping ponged back and forth between these two homes? Psychologists have proven that it is not. A child with “two homes” in REALITY has NO HOME.
And let’s look at the financial aspect of this situation:
Child support in Florida is already a huge mess.
In the latest Preliminary Report to Congress available online from the OCSE, published 5-31-2018
Florida has $5,834,267,735.00 dollars due in child support arrears. Over 5 billion due…
Cases with arrears due number 515,925
Cases paying towards arrears 359,631
Total number of children affected by these numbers: 656,368
When you add the childhood poverty stats to these numbers it is clear something is going very wrong for kids in the Sunshine State:
Kids below the Federal Poverty Threshold age 6 and under- 26%…
For 6-11-year old it gets a little better at ONLY 24%…
However, some Florida counties boast numbers even more shocking: Marion County has 31% of children below the poverty threshold. That is ONE out of every THREE kids! And for fiscal year 2017-2018 Marion county left $7,448,691 dollars in child support uncollected on 8536 DOR child support cases. But there can’t be a connection between the poverty numbers and unpaid child support, right?
50/50 proponents like to say that custodial parents are using “kids for cash” and not allowing the non-custodial parents to see the kids… Child support is a “racket” and should not be paid under any circumstances… Even though the average child support “award” is $329 dollars a month.
The OCSE published a Federal Report on 11/19/18 entitled “Characteristics of Families Served by the Child Support Program” using the latest data from the 2015 census.
48% of children in poverty were eligible for child support services
76% of custodial parents work full time
64% of non-custodial parents see their children
73% of IV-D households receive Medicaid benefits.
The wage gap is real, childhood poverty is real, divorce is real, and the reality is that our kids are paying the price. Don’t make your kids pay for your mistakes. They need you and they need your support. And if you think you can blow this off because it doesn’t affect you, the reality is – it affects every taxpayer in America.
Florida received over $156 million out of one Federal Grant Trust Fund for fiscal year 2016-2017 and that same year with almost 3000 employees on the DOR payroll for child support managed to leave $346,587,071.00 million dollars in child support uncollected: with at least one out of four kids under the Federal Poverty Threshold…
Why is our legislator not focusing on THAT? How much of that money is owed back the STATE for TANF and Medicaid for children whose parents are refusing to support them?
I just got the data for our last fiscal year, 2017-2018. Here are some of the worst offending counties:
Broward 22,993,392 million uncollected for one year on 24,264 minor children.
Dade 16,395,303 million uncollected for one year on 30,459 minor children.
Duval 23,649,004 million uncollected for one year on 27,156 minor children.
Escambia 9,347,688 million uncollected for one year on 10,285 minor children.
Hillsborough 28,232,388 million uncollected for one year on 27,220 minor children.
Okaloosa 5,123,636 million uncollected for one year on 4572 minor children.
Orange 22,008,683 million uncollected for one year on 23,833 minor children.
Seminole 5,393,079 million uncollected for one year on 5679 minor children.
Volusia 11,309,543 million uncollected for one year on 10,267 minor children.
Do I need to go on?
Florida is known as the “Deadbeat State” due to lack of enforcement. The 4th Judicial Circuit Courts admit to not prosecuting a single case under the Federal Deadbeats Parents Punishment Act since 2008…
I think our Legislators should be focusing on THIS, not “sneaking in” a mandate that is only going to make this situation worse, for our kids and for the taxpayers.
If you do not know your state representatives, I implore you to visit:
https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/representatives.aspx to find your congressman/congresswoman
https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find to find your state senators.
Democracy only works if we the people are involved, otherwise it’s a hot mess of special interest groups and personal agendas.
I urge you to contact your representatives today.
50/50 is coming, but I agree with you completely – it’s NOT in the “best interest” of the majority of children. It will harm DV victims and children alike. I did the “every other weekend” thing (after my father left us for his mistress). It was a misery and hated packing after school. Dreaded every second I spent away from “home” and my friends. It was like living a half life (especially since he lived about an hour away). My father was abusive, so it was much worse, but the truth is that the courts didn’t care then, and it’s only gotten worse in the years since then. in 2008, they est’d over 58,000 kids a years were forced into unsupervised contact with their abusive parents. Recent studies by Geo. Washington University Law School say that it’s latest 2018 study found in preliminary analysis, that an abusive father was the MOST likely of all parents to “win’ custody. When abuse was alleged, fathers won 72% of the time. (when sexual abuse was alleged – it was 81% of fathers). *Mothers are often warned about even mentioning abuse in family courts and a substantial number of cases are never reported at all, so there are many cases that were probably still missed*. Family court cases need to be settled as amicably as possible and there is no “pat” answer that will solve them all. Too many of the supporters of 50/50 are abusers, hoping to gain access and avoid being confronted with their deeds.
Ms. Haase,
Brilliant article. So true and so important for our law makers in Tallahassee to read!
I just spoke with Jan Killilea. I’d like to email you some thoughts for a related topic. Do you have an email I can use?
Thank you!
Thank you for reading and sharing. Please feel free to contact me through my booking page, Alana.Haase@yahoo.com