The only viable solution to the Problem of Child Support and Parenting Time is Joint Custody

The Path to Updating the Child Support Formula

 

Time between Parent & Child must be treated as an inherent right & responsibility with economic value.

As you can read on the other pages, the Courts, Legislature, and juries have all implicitly ascribed value, specific to Parenting Time, and indirectly by assigning civil value to an individual's effect on companionship, consortium, and society.

State Law should be updated accordingly, to end the contradiction and harm of the Child Support formula, and encourage Equal Parenting Time.

The Relational Benefit Coefficient (RBC) does this.

Your Support is needed and appreciated.

 

Draft Ballot Language for Petition Circulation

 

THE RELATIONAL BENEFIT COEFFICIENT (RBC) PARENTING EQUITY ACT

An Initiated Law to establish a time-based child support framework in which the parent with greater parenting time pays the parent with lesser parenting time a per-diem transfer for each child, to be annually adjusted for inflation after enactment; to define key terms; to provide counting and calculation rules; to preserve judicial authority for safety and extraordinary expenses; to direct state agencies to implement and publish rates; and to provide for enforcement, transition, and severability.

SECTION 1. TITLE.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Relational Benefit Coefficient (RBC) Parenting Equity Act."

SECTION 2. PURPOSE AND FINDINGS.

(1) The People find that the well-being of children is most strongly supported by meaningful time with both parents. Income-based transfer formulas often ignore the non-economic and economic value of parenting time and can create perverse incentives.

(2) The purpose of this act is to align child-support transfers with parenting time by (a) valuing a day of a child’s time at a uniform per-diem amount per child; (b) directing the parent with more parenting days to compensate the parent with fewer days; and (c) annually indexing the per-diem to inflation, beginning after enactment.

SECTION 3. DEFINITIONS.

"Parent" means a legal parent or other legal custodian with court-ordered parenting time.

"Child" means a minor subject to a custody or parenting-time order.

"Parenting Day" (PT Day) means any 24-hour period (12:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.) during which a child spends the majority of hours in the care of a parent. If no parent has a majority of hours on a calendar day, a half-day (0.5) shall be credited to each parent. Partial days may be aggregated to whole days (1.0).

"Number of Children" (N) means the count of minor children common to both parents and subject to the same order in a given month.

"Monthly Parenting Days" for a parent means the sum of that parent’s PT Days credited in the calendar month, using the court-ordered schedule as the baseline and actual time by stipulation or court finding where material.

"Base Per-Diem Rate" means $40.30 per child per PT Day as of the effective date of this act.

"Adjusted Per-Diem Rate" for a calendar year means the Base Per-Diem Rate multiplied by the inflation adjustment published under Section 8. The first Adjusted Per-Diem Rate shall take effect on the first January 1 that occurs after the effective date and shall apply prospectively only.

"Agency" means the office(s) designated by the state to administer child support and parenting-time accounting, including the State Disbursement Unit and friend-of-the-court offices.

SECTION 4. CORE RULE; RBC TRANSFER.

(1) For each calendar month, the parent with more Monthly Parenting Days shall pay the parent with fewer Monthly Parenting Days an amount equal to:

RBC = (Adjusted Per‑Diem Rate) × N × |PT_A − PT_B|

where PT_A and PT_B are each parent’s Monthly Parenting Days and N is the Number of Children.

(2) If Monthly Parenting Days are equal, the RBC transfer is $0.00 for that month.

(3) The court shall not impute income or apply income-sharing formulas to modify the RBC amount except as provided in Sections 5 and 6.

SECTION 5. EXTRAORDINARY EXPENSES; HEALTH COVERAGE.

(1) Unreimbursed, medically necessary health expenses for a child exceeding $250 per child per year shall be shared 50/50 by the parents unless otherwise agreed in writing or ordered for good cause.

(2) Premiums for a child’s health, dental, or vision coverage paid by a parent shall be allocated 50/50 unless otherwise agreed or ordered for good cause.

(3) Court-approved special needs, court-ordered safety measures, or educational expenses may be allocated by the court upon specific findings that such allocation is necessary to meet the child’s best interests and cannot reasonably be addressed through adjustments to parenting time.

SECTION 6. PARENTING-TIME COUNTING RULES.

(1) The Agency shall provide standardized tools for parties to log actual parenting time. Absent contrary proof or stipulation, the court-ordered schedule governs counting.

(2) Exchanges within a day: credit the day to the parent with the majority of hours. If precisely equal, each parent receives 0.5.

(3) Holidays, school breaks, and summer schedules are counted as above. Parents may submit stipulated tallies.

(4) Courts shall prefer day-based counting over "overnight" counting. Hours-based apportionment may be used only to resolve ties or material disputes.

SECTION 7. PAYMENT, ENFORCEMENT, AND INTEREST.

(1) RBC transfers are due on the 15th of the month following the month accrued and are payable through the State Disbursement Unit unless the court authorizes direct pay with receipts.

(2) An unpaid amount becomes a support judgment by operation of law 30 days after due date. Standard state judgment interest applies thereafter.

(3) Enforcement shall not restrict or reduce a parent’s court-ordered parenting time absent specific endangerment findings.

SECTION 8. ANNUAL INFLATION ADJUSTMENT AND PUBLICATION.

(1) On or before December 1 of each year, the Agency shall publish the Adjusted Per-Diem Rate for the next calendar year.

(2) First adjustment after enactment. The Adjusted Per-Diem Rate shall first apply on the first January 1 that occurs after the effective date. No adjustment shall apply to months prior to that date.

(3) The adjustment equals the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. City Average, All Items, for the 12 months ending the prior September, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, applied multiplicatively to the prior year’s rate and rounded to the nearest $0.10.

(4) If the CPI-U is discontinued, the Agency shall adopt a substantially similar index.

SECTION 9. TRANSITION AND CONVERSION OF EXISTING ORDERS.

(1) On the effective date, existing support orders convert prospectively to RBC unless a party shows good cause for a phased transition not exceeding 6 months.

(2) Pre-effective-date arrears remain enforceable as ordered. Courts may establish reasonable payment plans that prioritize current RBC obligations.

SECTION 10. OPT-OUT BY MUTUAL AGREEMENT.

(1) Parents may file a written, court-approved agreement to waive or vary RBC transfers if:

(a) Both consent freely and acknowledge the baseline RBC amount; and

(b) No party is receiving means-tested public assistance for the child; and

(c) The court finds the agreement serves the child’s best interests.

SECTION 11. ADMINISTRATION; RULEMAKING; CALCULATORS.

(1) The Agency shall promulgate rules and publish calculators, worksheets, and guidance to implement this act within 180 days.

(2) Calculators must compute RBC based on Monthly Parenting Days, N, and the published Adjusted Per-Diem Rate and display who owes whom and how much for the month.

SECTION 12. NO INTERFERENCE WITH LEGAL CUSTODY OR DECISION-MAKING.

Financial transfers under this act do not determine legal custody or decision-making authority.

SECTION 13. SEVERABILITY.

If any provision of this act is held invalid, the remaining provisions are severable and remain in effect.

SECTION 14. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This act takes effect 90 days after voter approval.

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OFFICIAL BALLOT SUMMARY

This proposal creates a time-based child-support formula called the Relational Benefit Coefficient (RBC). Each month, the parent with more parenting days pays the other parent a uniform per‑diem amount for each child. The per‑diem is $40.30 per child per day at enactment and is adjusted annually for inflation after enactment, with the first adjustment taking effect on the first January 1 following the law’s effective date. The law standardizes day‑based counting, preserves court authority for extraordinary expenses and safety, requires calculators that show who owes whom and how much, allows mutually agreed opt‑outs with court approval, converts existing orders prospectively, and includes enforcement and severability provisions.

FISCAL NOTE—SUMMARY.

Administrative costs are expected for calculator development, rulemaking, and parent‑time logging; these may be offset by reduced litigation over income‑based formulas. The Department shall report implementation costs and savings within two years of the effective date.