A poorly thought out youngster assist invoice offers a critical blow to Florida first responders

The 2022 Florida Legislative Session passed significant legislation to protect and care for our state’s first responders. governor Ron DeSantis Led responsibility for ensuring that first responders received salaries, bonuses and budgeted incentives that reflected the dedicated service they provide to our state on a daily basis.

Since day one, DeSantis has been an advocate for law enforcement and first responders.

Unfortunately, moving quickly through the halls of the Capitol, a bill that theoretically appeared to be good on most counts – Senate Invoice 1796. Its proponents boasted an end to permanent alimony, a guideline for spouses to follow in determining the amount and duration of alimony, and a dignified retirement.

The biggest supporters of the bill are those who will benefit financially from changing their existing child support payments and commitments.

However, opponents of the bill see the future of Floridians in jeopardy and established contractual arrangements in a possible upheaval.

What finally came out was a bill containing a ban with far-reaching implications for our law enforcement officers and our firefighters. Specifically, SB 1796 will prohibit Florida first responders from changing their child support payments at the age at which they normally retire. Instead, they must now wait until they are at least 65 years old before they can petition the court to reduce or end their existing child support payments.

For example, a first responder who started service between the ages of 20 and 25 and has served 20 to 30 years of service will be significantly younger than 65 when they retire. Under the terms of this bill, a retired first responder is prohibited by law from reducing or canceling his or her child support payments at the time of his or her reasonable retirement age and must pay his or her child support obligation, no matter how unpayable, until the age of 65.

Under current law, a person’s “fair” retirement is a basis for reducing or terminating their existing maintenance obligation, regardless of age. This is a mandatory part of existing Florida law because it recognizes that there are certain occupations in which individuals typically retire at a younger age because of the nature of their work. They are typically high-risk occupations, such as law enforcement officers, firefighters, paramedics, and air traffic controllers.

SB 1796 ties the reduction or termination of alimony to an arbitrary and specific age (65) rather than to a “reasonable” retirement age for a person’s occupation. This will undoubtedly, unfairly and disproportionately affect first responders. This is an unwarranted and unreasonable change in Florida law that ignores the realities of the high-risk fee-based occupations for government employees.

Good public policy requires that people receive the benefits of retirement at an age appropriate to their industry.

I ask Governor DeSantis to take a close look at this ill-conceived legislation because it not only allows individuals to retire fairly, as they claim they do, but could harm our state’s first responders.

For this reason, among others, I am confident that Governor DeSantis will veto this bill.

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Andrea Reid is a family law attorney and a member of the Executive Council and Legislative Committee of the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar.

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