Some women join another battle to end Florida’s livelihoodAxios on FacebookAxios on TwitterAxios on LinkedInAxios by emailImage: Brendan Lynch / Axios
Some women have campaigned for a law that would put an end to Florida’s permanent livelihood system, saying it is not fair for them to have to forever fund their ex-husbands’ lifestyles.
- “I was married for 15 years, and this is my 15th year paying permanent alimony to a college graduate man who simply refuses to work,” said Natalie Willis, a doctor from south Florida.
What’s new: Senate Bill 1922, sponsored by Senator Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota), was approved by the Chamber’s Judiciary Committee yesterday and is now moving on to the Grants Committee.
- Supporters of the bill, including a group called Florida Family Fairness, claim trends show that more and more child support payers are women – and the written law sometimes entitles their ex-husbands to lifelong child support payments.
The score: According to the new law, the longest maintenance payments could not exceed half the duration of the marriage.
- Maintenance ends when the payer reaches retirement age, while under the current system permanent maintenance ends in most cases only when someone remarries or dies.
- The text also includes a controversial “guess” that a 50/50 split of the children would be in the best interests of the children.
The other side: Opponents of the bill – many of them women – say the current system works, as many who stay home mothers divorce too late in life to start careers.
Context: In 2013 and 2016, former Governor Rick Scott vetoed similar bills on maintenance reform.
- Worthless: The vetoed versions would have been applied retrospectively, but the new proposal would not.
This story first appeared in the Axios Tampa Bay newsletter, which is designed to help readers get faster and smarter on the most momentous news that unfolds in their own backyard.
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