Partner benefits proposal tabled

BANGOR – A proposal to offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of city employees stalled Wednesday when a City Council committee tabled the controversial plan until after next month’s election.

The proposal, brought forward on the heels of last month’s passage of a citywide gay rights ordinance, would extend to gay and unmarried heterosexual couples health benefits – and possibly other benefits – traditionally reserved for married couples.

While the plan – estimated to cost the city between $40,000 and $60,000 a year – was put on the back burner Wednesday, members of the government operations committee stressed that the issue would again see the light of the day.

“I don’t want this to die in this committee,” said outgoing City Councilor Pat Blanchette, who earlier endorsed the added benefits, similar to those extended to state employees earlier this year.

“There are people living together, and health insurance is just so expensive,” Blanchette said before Wednesday’s meeting. “I’d rather that they get the care they need before they get sick and end up on the welfare rolls. To me, it’s not a special benefit, it’s the right thing to do.”

The full council also would have to approve the plan before it could take effect.

In asking for the committee to take a closer look at the issue, City Councilor Joseph Baldacci said the panel should consider not only domestic partner benefits, but also the need for benefit packages for part-time employees and families with children.

Like Blanchette, Baldacci said that offering those added benefits could help the city attract and retain quality employees in the city’s 500-member work force.

“We need to focus on that broader issue,” said Baldacci before proposing to table the domestic partner coverage plan until city staff could firm up cost estimates before the next budget hearings.

Whenever the issue next arises, there is likely to be plenty of debate if early reaction to the plan is any indication.

“I object to subsidizing a lifestyle that I believe is harmful to society,” Steve Egland of Bangor told the committee, which will revisit the issue next month.

The proposed changes to Bangor’s personnel guidelines are similar to those adopted by the State Employee Health Commission, which earlier this year granted health insurance to domestic partners of state employees.

In a later move, the governor signed into a law a requirement that all group health insurance plans in the state offer the domestic partner benefit as of Jan 1, 2002.

Opponents of the state policy say the plan undermines conventional marriage while advancing a gay agenda, and they already have launched a petition drive to prohibit state and local governments from providing the benefits. If opponents – including the Christian Civic League of Maine – are successful in gathering enough signatures, the issue would go on the November 2002 ballot.

If Bangor were to offer the benefit, it would join just three other Maine communities – Portland, Bar Harbor and Camden – that do so.

The new rules would not apply to Bangor School Department employees, who already receive the benefit through the Maine Education Association.

Several private employers and colleges also extend health benefits to domestic partners of their employees. The University of Maine System offers the benefit, but only for gay couples, who are barred from marriage under state law.