The Cost Shares Child Support Guideline — A Common Sense and Economics Based Improvement Over the Income Shares Guideline [PDF] February 7, 2001.
A Response to and Critique of “Economic Basis for Updated Child Support Schedule, Commonwealth of Kentucky, September 1, 2000” by Policy Studies, Incorporated, Denver, CO, submitted to the Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children by R. Mark Rogers.
     This report is critical of Policy Studies, Inc.’s recommendation to raise Kentucky’s child support schedule across most income levels.  It discusses the flawed economic foundation of the Income Shares methodology and shows the extensive amounts of alimony it includes.  The report discusses how the proposed income shares guideline does not meet equal protection standards and recommends a guideline based on actual child costs data. The cost shares guideline then estimates the tax benefits attributable to the children as a cost offset.  The remainder is then allocated between the parents according to income.  Must reading for any interested in reforming child support guidelines.

The King Has No Clothes? — Part I [MSWord 97] by Ann Swango, child advocate, August 10, 2000.
Allegations against the Kentucky Child Support Review Commission Under KRS 403.213(4) for willfully not complying with federal regulations and state statutes in establishing and enforcing child support guidelines. Includes lengthy list of documented violations.

The King Has No Clothes? – Part IA [MSWord97] by Ann Swango, child advocate, August 10, 2000.
Opinion Testimony to the Program Review and Investigations Committee. Testimony alleging misconduct by the Kentucky Child Support Review Commission.

The King Has No Clothes? – Part II [MSWord 97] by Ann Swango, child advocate, September 5, 2000.
Documentation that the Kentucky Child Support Commission was biased in its exclusion of experts on child costs, that the commission was not meeting official quorum requirements, did not properly represent the appropriate technical body for the commission, and that the commission deliberately misrepresented facts on child costs in presentations to the legislature, and other allegations.