(From the Deseret Morning News, Wednesday, February 14, 2007.)

Barring unexpected delays, Senate Bill 23 — seeking an increase in child support payments — should get voted on today.

Oh, and happy Valentine's Day.

      Who says the Legislature doesn't have a heart?

      Sponsored by Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights, SB23 would increase monthly support amounts by as much as 25 percent — an increase considered necessary because the state's monthly support tables have not been changed since 1994.

      But while on the surface adjusting the tables for inflation would seem to make perfect sense, there is the not insignificant detail that since support payments are computed as a direct ratio of income, they have risen steadily since 1994 anyway.

      Adjusting for inflation has already been happening.

      Tony Curtis has been attempting to hammer this point at the Legislature since the 2007 session began, spending every spare minute when he's not at his day job as a software programmer attempting to educate lawmakers.

      Curtis is not your garden variety, let's-go-to-dinner, could-you-use-some-Jazz-tickets? lobbyist. Nobody's paying him and his organization is not exactly organized. A few friends help out and occasionally dig up research.

      But basically it's just Tony and his computer.

      Much like a noncustodial parent once the divorce is over.

      It will come as no shock when I tell you Tony has been through a divorce. It happened in 1994. He has been paying child-support for his three children ever since. At first it was about $200 per month per child. Today it's about $400, reflecting the steady rise in his income. He is himself a walking example of the inflation factor.

      In 13-plus years Tony Curtis has paid more than $120,000 in child support, and he has the second jobs, the bus passes, the time away from his kids and the years he lived in his mom's basement to show for it.

      From firsthand experience, he believes child support to be lopsided — and not in a way that favors the noncustodial parent.

      He has papered Capitol Hill with a spreadsheet that shows that when a Utah couple making a median Utah income (about $55,000) decides to split up, current child support ratios leave the custodial parent with 62 percent disposable income ($2,200) compared with 38 percent ($1,360) for the parent without the kids.

      If the Legislature wanted to be fair, Curtis contends, it would adjust child support ratios down, not up.

      "The system is bad already," he says, "and they want to make it worse."

      But they'll have to do it over his objections.

      "I'm only working one job now and I have the time to do this," he says, "I'm lucky. Most guys in this boat are too busy making money so they can pay child support."

      Even if the Legislature votes to raise rates, Curtis won't be affected because increases would not go into effect until 2010, when his obligations will have ceased.

      "I'm not doing this for myself," he says, "I'm doing it because the system is not equitable."

      Then he adds, and not as an afterthought, "And because I have three sons."

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to and faxes to 801-237-2527.