Posted on 11/12/2003 9:38:15 AM PST by Chummy
Doyle defends benefits offer State-paid insurance for domestic partners touted
By STEVEN WALTERS and AMY RINARD
Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle defended his offer to negotiate state-paid health insurance for domestic partners Tuesday, calling it worthy of consideration and insisting there would be no extra cost to taxpayers if it is part of new union contracts.
But Republicans who control the Legislature immediately asked Doyle to drop the idea, which would apply to unmarried couples of the same and opposite sex.
"I would encourage the governor to make sure this does not come to the Legislature," said Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend), all but promising that Republicans would not ratify any labor contract that included that controversial provision.
"This is not the right time to go into this," Panzer said. "We have very hard economic times that people are feeling all across the state. For state employees, they're facing layoffs."
There would not be enough votes in the Legislature to ratify a state labor contract that included health insurance for domestic partners, said Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin), author of a bill vetoed by Doyle last week that would define marriage as a union only between a man and a woman. That measure would prevent the legalization of same-sex marriages in Wisconsin.
"This is a good indication of Governor Doyle's social agenda," said Gundrum, of the health benefits provision. "He's turning out to be the Madison liberal people feared he would be."
Noting that there were 68 votes in the 99-member Assembly in favor of his marriage bill, Gundrum said: "You're not going to find a majority in this house that is interested in advancing that kind of social agenda."
Merit seen in proposal After giving a Veterans Day speech in the Capitol, Doyle told reporters his offer is a long way from being finally accepted by union negotiators and, ultimately, the Legislature.
"I think it's worthy to put on the (bargaining) table, to see whether the unions have any interest in it," Doyle told reporters. "I think we should be trying to work to get health care for people.
"It would not cost the state at all. We were clear, when it was put on the table, that any cost . . . would come out of the small amount of money that we actually have for contracts this year."
Doyle has directed state negotiators to offer unionized workers no pay raises in the year that ends on June 30, and 1% pay raises the next year.
According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state budget sets aside $109 million this year to pay the costs of labor contracts that were negotiated late, and $163 million to cover a possible 1% pay raise for state workers by mid-2005.
Explaining why he forwarded the benefits idea, Doyle said: "People approached us who thought it was something to put on the bargaining table.
"Frequently, the employer puts things on the bargaining table; the employees put things on the bargaining table. Where it ends up in bargaining, we'll see . . . If there's not any interest on their part, there's not any interest."
Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow said leaders of six of state government's 19 unions asked that extending health insurance to domestic partners be a subject of negotiations. To protect the secrecy of the bargaining process, the names of those six unions will not be released, Leistikow said.
Doyle said his offer to extend health insurance to domestic partners would not benefit only gay or lesbian couples.
"Partners doesn't have to do with gender at all," Doyle said. "It can be partners of opposite sex, or the same sex."
Madison offers health benefits to domestic partners, as does Milwaukee, which has agreed to the provide the benefit in several union contracts.
Michael Moore, president of the State Professional Educators and Information Council, said his union of about 800 state workers was one of those that included health insurance benefits for domestic partners in a contract proposal made a year ago.
But, Moore said, he was startled to read about the Doyle administration's offer in the Journal Sentinel on Tuesday. Although he has been negotiating with the administration since June, he said, the subject has never been raised in contract talks with his union.
"This is the first I've heard about it," he said. "I was surprised to read about it, because nobody has put anything about this on the table with us."
Limited dollars In general, Moore said, his members believe that the more people that are covered by health insurance in Wisconsin, the better health care will be for everyone.
But with so little money set aside for general wage increases, he said, his union will not push the issue of health insurance for domestic partners during these negotiations.
With limited money available, "you want to make sure it's doled out as fairly as possible," Moore said.
Marty Beil, executive director of Council 24 of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, an umbrella coalition of local unions, said this is not the year to make this issue a priority because of the state's tight finances. His members are most concerned about affordable health insurance and hedges against inflation, he said.
"Issues like domestic partners don't even show up on the priorities list for us because of the state's economic picture," Beil said. "There are only so many ways you can spend one percent, which isn't a lot of money."
Given the choice of having health insurance for domestic partners or getting a 10-cent-an-hour raise, most of his members would take the dime, he said.
"Kudos go to the governor for bringing up such a controversial issue," he said. "But it's just the wrong time."
Senate Democratic Leader Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said he supports offering state health insurance to domestic partners.
"As long as we don't break the bank - and it doesn't sound like that is going to happen - that's fine," Erpenbach said.
Erpenbach said state government should follow the practices of some private businesses that already extend health insurance to domestic partners.
"The corporate world is light years ahead of us when it comes to domestic partner benefits," he said.
- From the Nov. 12, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -
It would not cost the state at all? Well, who pays for this expansion of already bloated spending?
This is yet another statement from a public official that underscores the dangers of electing liberals like this.
This Governor just last week vetoed legislation that would have defined marriage as that legal union between a man and a woman. The legislation had passed the State Assembly with 68 of 99 votes.
You can put it on the table. Add domestic partners in return for easier layoff or job transfer rules or cuts in paid sick leave, etc.
You don't. We just pay and pay and pay...
Up to 55 percent of homosexual men with anorectal complaints have gonorrhea; 80 percent of the patients with syphilis are homosexuals," he wrote. "Chlamydia is found in 15 percent of asymptomatic homosexual men, and up to one third of homosexuals have active anorectal herpes simplex virus." He went on to point out, "In addition, a host of parasites, bacterial, viral, and protozoan are rampant in the homosexual population."
Health & Homosexuality Posted on 08/18/2003 9:32 PM CDT by Vindiciae Contra TyrannoSCOTUS
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