EDITORIAL: At last, state updates child support formula

Nov. 1—Major revisions to Indiana's child-support guidelines have been a long time in coming, some 50 years.

So it was welcome news that the Indiana Supreme Court, in making amendments to other court procedures, adopted child-support formulas this month to match incomes and needs for the 2020s.

The former payment formula was determined by estimates of the percentage of household spending on food, which relied on economic theories and consumer data from the 1970s. The new formula is based on how much parents reduce spending on themselves as the number of children in the family increases.

Convoluted, yes, but necessarily so.

In a lengthy order, the Indiana Supreme Court began its commentary by asking, "What does it take to support a child? The question is simple, but the answer is extremely complex."

Using well-regarded research, the court acknowledged that the higher a family's income, the higher the spending for children. But the schedule for child support had declined.

Under the new pay schedule, parents who make $1,000 in combined weekly adjusted income will be required to pay $28 more a week, or $1,450 more a year, in support for one child. Weekly payments go down for low-income parents who earn less than $580 a week.

The court explored costs of parenting time. The court also evaluated medical costs, including a father's responsibility to pay at least 50% of the reasonable expenses of a pregnancy and childbirth. That provision reworks the previous all-too-general wording of paying just "a percentage."

The 50% figure came through House Bill 1009, which was originally written to allow child support payments to begin at conception. The bill was amended to expand paternal requirements for the costs of pregnancy.

Such changes in state law were reviewed by the Indiana Judicial Conference Domestic Relations Committee. The new guidelines were then submitted to the state Supreme Court, which is trying to straighten the circuitous path judges use in setting child support.

But major revisions don't need a 50-year wait.

The Indiana General Assembly's judiciary committees can hear legislation that would set timetables for evaluation of judicial code and not leave important changes to individual bills.

The Judicial Conference committee should also set calendars, at least every 10 years to update child-support formulas based on the needs and incomes of Hoosiers. In turn, they could submit ideas to the legislature.

No one wants to see a judge order payments based on economic data from prior decades. Children already face upheaval from parental separation or divorce. No one wants to see a child's quality of life suffer because of outdated formulas.