The Detroit News discusses the 25 cent increase in the child support processing fee and everyone offering their own two bits on the subject.
Judy Putnam writes (excerpt):
Those paying child support will have to dig a tiny bit deeper in 2004, in a move that’s angering noncustodial parents and fathers’ rights groups.
The state will increase a monthly child support processing fee by 25 cents in January to generate new money for the state Attorney General’s Office, said Daniel Wright, director of the Michigan Supreme Court Friend of the Court Bureau.
The fee went into effect Oct. 1, but the state did not have the computer system ready to collect the fee, Wright said.
Lawmakers, looking for a way to boost Attorney General Mike Cox’s child support collection efforts, earmarked the fees for his office rather than the Friend of the Court office. Finishing his first year in office, Cox carved out a role in child support collection by focusing on tough cases involving wealthy parents behind in child support.