Specifications include, but are not limited to: The Contractor shall complete the quadrennial review of Vermont’s child support guidelines. Based upon Federal regulations (45 C.F.R. §302.56) and Vermont Statute (15 V.S.A. 654) these guidelines must be updated “at least once every four years.”; 1. Update the Adjusted Gross to Tax Income Conversion Tables: a. The Contractor shall update the Adjusted Gross to After Tax Income Conversion Tables for both shared and sole/split custody situations to reflect the most recent federal and state tax rates and credits and FICA as defined in 15 V.S.A. 653 (C) and (D). The Contractor shall use the same forms and assumption as previous reviews (i.e., the IRS 1040-ES instead of the IRS withholding formula and the splitting of the Earned Income Credit for the income conversion table for shared custody situations) unless OCS approves an alternative method that is proposed and submitted to OCS for review by February 15, 2023. 2. Update Vermont Table of Intact Family Expenditures on Children based on current economic parameters: a. The Contractor shall update the Vermont Table of Intact Family Expenditures on Children. The Contractor shall first review and compare the economic basis of the current table (i.e., measurements of child-rearing expenditures developed by Dr. Betson using the Rothbarth method applied to expenditure outlay data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey) and the most current economic data on child-rearing expenditures. Some of the studies with more current economic data differ from the economic study underlying the current table because of methodological differences in how expenditures were measured, rather than changes in expenditures patterns over time. The Contractor shall summarize these studies and options for updates in a memorandum to OCS so OCS will have an opportunity to confirm which economic data should be used to update the table. Whatever study is confirmed shall be updated to the most current price level. Childcare costs, health insurance premiums, and extraordinary medical and educations will be excluded from the study when using it to update the table. 3. Prepare graphical and tabular comparisons: a. The contractor shall develop graphical and tabular comparisons of the proposed and existing tables. This shall include side-by-side comparisons of the tables and nine graphical comparisons of a range of incomes and varying number of children based on Vermont income data and poverty data to fulfill the federal requirement to consider labor market data, the impact on low-income families, and other factors that influence employment rates (C.F.R. § 302.56 (l)) as part of the guidelines review. The graphical comparisons shall also consider guidelines amounts from neighboring states. 4. Prepare written report a. The Contractor shall prepare a report that describes the economic basis of the existing tables; federal income tax changes affecting the income conversion tables (and any state income tax changes), new economic data on the cost of raising children, and any other relevant economic changes; the economic basis of the proposed, updated tables and steps and assumptions used to develop them; the graphical and tabular comparisons of the current and updated tables with an explanation identifying the cause of the changes; and other information pertinent to the guidelines review. 5. Submit deliverables a. The Contractor shall provide all deliverables to the State in hard copy and electronic format by no later than June 1, 2023; specifically, the report and tables shall be in Microsoft 10 or 11 and saved as XML files. 6. Additional Assistance a. Upon request from the State, the Contractor shall provide additional assistance in updating, clarifying, presenting, and testifying on the new child support guidelines to assist through the rule-making process. If the State requests these services, the Contractor shall be paid at an agreed upon hourly rate to be determined during the contract negotiations.
