TALLAHASSEE – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a measure that will overhaul the state’s child support laws after three vetoes against similar bills and a decade of emotional wrangling over the issue.
The measure (SB 1416) includes the abolition of so-called perpetual maintenance. DeSantis’ approval came a year after he opposed a similar bill aimed at eliminating permanent alimony and establishing a formula for alimony payments based on marriage length.
The approval sparked an outcry from members of the First Wives Advocacy Group, a coalition of mostly older women who receive permanent child support and claim that without the payments, their lives would be turned upside down.
“On behalf of the thousands of women our group represents, we are deeply disappointed in the governor’s decision to sign the child support reform bill into law. “The so-called ‘Family Values’ party has just contributed to the erosion of the institution of marriage in Florida,” said Jan Killilea, a The 63-year-old Boca Raton woman who founded the group a decade ago texted The News Service of Florida on Friday.
The years-long effort to abolish perpetual alimony is a highly contentious issue.
It prompted tearful statements from members of the First Wives group. But it also sparked impassioned appeals from ex-spouses, who said they had been forced to work long past the age at which they planned to retire because they had to pay alimony.
Michael Buhler, chairman of Florida Family Fairness, a group working to abolish permanent child support, praised the bill’s passage.
“Florida Family Fairness is pleased that the Florida Legislature and Gov. DeSantis passed a bill ending permanent alimony and codifying into law retirement rights for existing alimony payers,” Buhler said in a statement.
“Anything that brings clarity and ends permanent maintenance is a win for Florida families.”
Along with DeSantis’ veto of the 2022 version, former Gov. Rick Scott twice vetoed similar bills.
The issue sparked a near-riot outside Scott’s office in 2016.
This year, however, the proposal met with relatively little public opposition and received the blessing of Florida Family Fairness and the Florida Bar Association’s family law division, which had had heated arguments on the issue in the past.
In addition to removing permanent alimony, the measure introduces a process for ex-spouses who pay alimony to request changes to the alimony arrangements if they wish to retire.
It will allow judges to reduce or eliminate alimony, support or alimony payments after considering a range of factors such as “the age and health” of the person making the payment; the normal retirement age for that person’s occupation; “the economic impact” that a reduction in maintenance would have on the recipient of the payments; and the “motivation for retirement and likelihood of returning to work” for the person making the payments.
Proponents said it would codify into law a court decision in a 1992 divorce case that would help judges make decisions about retirement.
But as with previous versions, opponents remained concerned that the bill would apply to existing permanent alimony arrangements, which many ex-spouses accept in return for forgoing other assets as part of a divorce settlement.
“He (DeSantis) just impoverished all of Florida’s older women, and I know at least 3,000 women across the state of Florida are turning Democrats and we will fight him forever,” said Camille Fiveash, a Milton Republican receiving enduring maintenance, he said in a telephone interview on Friday.
When DeSantis vetoed the 2022 version, he cited concerns about the bill, which would allow ex-spouses to change existing child support agreements.
In a veto letter dated June 24, 2022, he wrote that if the bill “would become law and be given retrospective effect as intended by the legislature, it would unconstitutionally interfere with well-understood rights under certain pre-existing marriage agreements.”
But Senate bill proponent Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, tried to reassure lawmakers that the 2023 legislation would not have any unconstitutional effects on existing child support rules.
This year’s proposal “consistent with current case law,” Gruters told a Senate committee in April, citing the court ruling.
“So what you can do now after the case law is that we now codify all these laws and make them the rule of law. So we’re basically just solidifying that. So from a retrospective perspective, no, because if anything could be changed before, “It’s still changeable. If it’s an unchangeable agreement, you still can’t change that agreement,” he said.
The bill, which will come into force on Saturday, also provides for a five-year limit on so-called rehabilitation maintenance.
Under the plan, people married for less than three years are not eligible for alimony, and people married for 20 years or more are eligible for payments for up to 75 percent of the marriage’s length.
The new law will also allow alimony payers to request changes if “a supportive relationship exists or has existed” in which their ex-spouses were involved in the previous year. Critics argued the provision was vague and could apply to temporary housemates who help dependents cover their living expenses for a short time.
Fiveash, a 63-year-old with serious medical conditions, said she could not afford another alimony litigation.
“I’m afraid they may take you to court again and I don’t have the money for a lawyer. I literally live on a small part of the upkeep. I work part-time because I suffer from all sorts of ailments.” . And now I’m left with nothing, absolutely nothing,” she said.
Health insurance, Fiveash added, will “probably be the first to be eliminated” if its payments are reduced or eliminated altogether.
“It’s a death sentence for me,” she said.
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