House Committee to hold hearing on domestic partner benefits

The House Committee on Oversight, Reform and Ethics will hold hearings Tuesday on two piece of legislation to prohibit public employers from extending partner benefits to adults who live with public employees.

The move comes as Gov. Rick Snyder prepares to sign the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That budget includes a “sense of the legislature” amendment indicating that providing partner benefits is in violation of Michigan law. It originally included a five percent penalty for public universities and colleges that offered partner benefits, but that measure was removed in conference committee.

Rep. Dave Agema (R-Grandville) promised to introduce legislation to enshrine his anti-domestic partner benefits agenda in law. Those two bills are now getting a public hearing.

HB 4770 would prohibit public employers from providing domestic partner benefits. HB 4771 would prohibit such benefits from being a part of union negotiations.

The issue came to a head in January when the Michigan Civil Service Commission approved partner benefits for adults living with state employees. The decision was made to honor contract agreements made under the administration of Gov. Jennifer Granholm. In 2004, Granholm and some state employee unions agreed on domestic partner benefits for same-sex partners of state employees. Lawmakers cried foul at the MCSC decision.

That fall, voters approved the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment, which defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. In 2008, a lawsuit that had worked its way through the state court system was decided by the Supreme Court. The ruling outlawed domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples. As a result, some public universities and public bodies created a program called Other Eligible Individual, which allowed an employee to designate another adult, of either gender, as another person to be covered by the insurance.

Lawmakers in the Senate overwhelmingly approved a resolution to overrule the MCSC decision, while the House was never able to muster the two-thirds vote to overrule the decision. Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration has opposed the benefits on financial grounds, as have other lawmakers.

But Michigan Messenger was able to show the extension of such benefits would have a negligible impact on budgets. Messenger was able to how that MSU spends .005 percent of its $67 million healthcare budget on extending the coverage to other eligible individuals.

“These bills continue the blatant attacks on collective bargaining and on the gay community. Representative Agema has consistently sponsored extremist, illogical bills,” said Emily Dievendorf in an email statement to Michigan Messenger. Dievendorf is the policy director of Equality Michigan, an LGBT advocacy organization. “His radically biased social agenda does not reflect the vast majority of Michiganders’ values. Most Michigan residents favor non-discrimination policies and equality in their communities. Unfortunately, successful passage of Representative Agema’s bills would not be nearly as laughable as the absurd assumptions they are rooted in. Today’s bills are dangerous. They would disable two of Michigan’s most valued sources of strength – compromising the access our public employees’ children have to good health and disrespecting the power and autonomy of our labor unions. Both imposed weaknesses are uncalled for and out of touch with Michigan values.”