For example, if a noncustodial parent doesn't provide any income information, the court will calculate support based on that person's ability to make minimum wage. That works out to about $17 a week in child support.
The bottom line, the attorney general's office says, is that parents have to notify the court about income changes -- up or down. But they often don't, and instead stop paying support. That's not acceptable, Cox says.
"You don't stiff your kid," he says. "That's just not the response."
Cox has used donations from a number of corporations to erect billboards along Michigan's interstate highways showing handcuffs or a person behind bars and warning of the state's new get-tough attitude.
"We never treat deadbeats with kid gloves," say some of the 39 billboards. Others warn, "Pay child support on time or do time." The billboards also carry Cox's name, a toll-free number and the Internet address of a new Web site where users can ask for help or anonymously report someone not paying child support.
Cox says his PayKids initiative is focusing on those parents who can pay support but don't, not on those who can't afford to pay.
"This isn't a situation where we're creating a debtors' prison," Cox says.
He says about $4 billion in child support is owed to about 650,000 Michigan children. That doesn't count the $3 billion spent by taxpayers to cover medical and social services for children who haven't gotten what their parents have been ordered to pay, he says.
The attorney general's office hopes to collect $1 million in unpaid support by the end of the year.
Frostic and his wife Stephanie say focusing on the support payments detracts from parenting time.
They say in a perfect world, mothers and fathers should have joint custody of their children with no money changing hands. When that can't happen, noncustodial parents shouldn't be obligated to pay so much, the couple says.
"They're taking away custody and only giving visitation. ... Then there isn't a relationship there, it's all about money," says Stephanie Frostic, 30, who pays support for a son from her previous marriage.
Stephanie Crino, a lecturer at Ave Maria School of Law and a former family court referee, says educating more people on legal remedies for child support and custody issues could help parents who either don't get the child support they're owed or can't make their payments.
She also says parents who don't live with their children need to be reminded of what it takes to raise a child.
"Noncustodial (parents) perceive the amounts as very high, but they're just very out of touch with how much it costs when you do live with your child," Crino says.
Chris Frostic says if a parent needs more child support money, they should allow more visitation by the other parent to shift the burden.
"Do we really want fathers who are looking at their kids and saying, `Boy, this is really a strain?"' Chris Frostic says. "The whole point should be to encourage fathers to spend time" with their children.
