TALLAHASSEE -- Equal child sharing by divorced couples would become the preferred state policy under a bill approved Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure (SB 250), sponsored by Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, is one of three major bills moving in the 2016 session that seek to revamp Florida laws impacting alimony, child-sharing and other issues involving the nearly 80,000 Floridians who are divorced each year.

Lee and other proponents are moving the legislation with the aim of modernizing Florida’s system of dissolving marriages, including establishing a new formula and guidelines that would be used by judges in awarding alimony and child support.

Lawmakers have been debating the issue since 2013 when they passed an alimony-reform bill that was vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott, who objected to provisions in the bill that he said could have had a retroactive impact on couples already divorced.

The bills continue to draw emotional and sometime contentious debate, particularly from women who worry that the changes could end or reduce their alimony or disrupt child-sharing arrangements. Florida NOW is among the women’s groups that oppose the legislation.

A key difference in the Senate and House bills is the child-sharing provision. The House bill (HB 455), which has drawn the support of the family law section of The Florida Bar, does not change the current child-sharing provisions.

But Lee is a proponent of starting with the assumption that divorced couples would equally share child rearing, while giving the judge the authority to alter that arrangement based on 22 criteria, which include issues like schooling, medical care and a child’s friends.

“As the parents enter the courthouse front door, that they are presumed to be equally good parents and it gives them the opportunity to make their case before a judge,” Lee said, noting 20 of the 22 criteria are already in the law.

He said if the judge deviated from the 50-50 presumption the reasons would have to be explained in writing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 for Lee’s bill.

Another major alimony reform bill (SB 668), sponsored by Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, will soon be heard by the Judiciary Committee. It directly deals with changing the alimony formula, including treating long-term marriages of more than 20 years differently from shorter-term marriages.

The measure, like the House bill, would generally prohibit alimony in marriages of less than two years. And it would eliminate permanent alimony and other types of alimony, including durational and rehabilitative alimony, replacing those payments with the new alimony formula.

A number of issues have drawn criticism, including a provision that would let a spouse who is paying the alimony seek to reduce the payment if the receiving spouse’s income increased by 10 percent or more. Critics say that could result in lower payments for a spouse earning the minimum wage who gains a $1 an hour pay raise.