BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1483
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 9, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
SB 1483 (Alquist) - As Amended: June 26, 2006
Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:9 -
0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill would allow five participating counties to implement
an expedited child support order modification process until
January 1, 2010 and would require the Judicial Council and the
Department of Child Support Services to evaluate the success of
the expedited processes.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)The workload costs for the Department of Child Support
Services to develop forms for the expedited process and
develop criteria to determine eligible cases could reach
$125,000.
2)The cost of evaluating the pilot project could reach $250,000
(based on evaluation costs of other pilot projects).
3)In addition to the costs associated with the legislation, the
modification process could result in savings for the courts
and could increase the amount of child support collected.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the sponsor, the Child Support
Directors Association, this bill would simplify the
modification of expedited child support orders by allowing
them to be administratively amended, rather than the current
process, which requires a court-based modification process.
California has long struggled with trying to improve and
simplify the way child support is collected in this state.
This pilot could help in that effort.
SB 1483
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2)Background . Currently, if a child support order is too high
for a non-custodial parent (NCP) to afford (or, conversely,
too low an amount) the family must return to court to have the
order modified. Generally, setting a child support order that
is more than the NCP can afford results in non-payment of
child support and a large arrearages debt accrued by the NCP.
These arrearages grow dramatically over time and NCPs are
charged interest on their past-due amounts. Most of this debt
becomes uncollectible and is never recovered. Currently, in
California, NCPs owe over $19 billion in past due child
support and only slightly over $1 billion was collected in
2005.
3)Increased Child Support Collections . To the extent that an
expedited out-of-court modification procedure is adopted,
local child support directors assert that the state should see
an improvement in the ability to collect child support for
custodial parents and their children. Being able to quickly
modify a child support order to the appropriate level based
upon the actual income of the NCP and the needs of the family
should help NCPs maintain their child support payments and
avoid accruing arrearages.
4)Pilot Counties . This bill limits participation in the pilot
project to Alameda, Fresno, Orange, San Mateo, and Santa Clara
counties.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081