County Commissioners Consider Extending Health Benefits To Unmarried Partners Of County Employees
It’s the same budget battle, but in a different arena.
Tuesday afternoon county commissioners considered whether to extend health insurance benefits to the unmarried partners of county employees, including both gay and straight couples. The same measure has already prompted an ongoing ugly and expensive legal battle at the city level.
County commissioners voted against the measure in a 3-2 vote. About one percent of the county’s staff would have been eligible and depending on how many people signed up, it would have taken up about $23,000 from the county’s general fund.
Commissioner Anna Perez, who voted for the measure, said it would have saved money in the long run. “I really feel it was an appropriate thing to consider financially for the county. It’s a choice: do you want to pay health care for one percent of county employees or do you want to pay 10 times that in the form of unfunded care at University Medical Center?”
County judge Veronica Escobar also voted in favor of extending benefits.
Commissioner Dan Haggerty was not on board with the idea, however. He, Sergio Lewis and Willie Gandara, Jr. voted against it. Haggerty said he did not see a need to spend money on the extra care, especially when it has caused such a firestorm at the city level. “Why go there when we don’t have to? Why look for more things to throw money at?”
The issue over domestic partner benefits has been a political roller coaster ride at city council. First, city reps voted to extend the benefits. Then voters revoked the benefits through a vaguely written ordinance that cut off many more health care recipients than the original intended targets. City council said that’s why it then reinstated the benefits, but their decision to do so landed two city representatives and the mayor himself at the center of a recall effort.
This is not the first time the county has considered extending benefits to unwed domestic partners of county employees. The measure was suggested and struck down in 2009, too.
