A green light for benefits
S.L. Council's poll backs domestic-partner coverage
The council unanimously agreed in a straw poll Tuesday night to extend health benefits to adult partners, siblings, long-term roommates and parents of city employees, a move that would trump Mayor Rocky Anderson's executive order this fall that offered benefits solely to domestic partners of employees.
The council voted informally during a work session and still must finalize its position, which will likely happen the first week of February, said Dave Buhler, council chairman. Offering coverage to an additional 58 to 96 people would "go a long way to making us a better city," council member Van Turner said.
The health benefits plan would offer coverage through the Public Employees Health Plan, which the city uses for roughly 2,900 employees already, and expand the categories of people who could enroll to allow an additional 58 to 96 people access to the plan.
Under the council's proposed plan, city employees could have health insurance for their unmarried partners of either gender, siblings or long-term roommates. However, the employees first must show joint financial obligations such as a car or house loan, joint checking accounts or credit cards, or mutual beneficiaries on life insurance policies.
Anderson's plan offered health coverage explicitly only to domestic partners as "one of the hallmarks of a progressive employer that values diversity," he wrote in an executive order dated Sept. 21.
Under Anderson's plan, which faced a court challenge from several Salt Lake residents and a religious-advocacy law group from Arizona, roughly 10 to 22 people would have been eligible to enroll at a cost of $17,000 to $63,000. The council's plan is three to four times more expensive at $140,000 to $225,000, but it would cover four to five times more people.
The council's plan is in line with Utah's Defense of Marriage Act and Amendment Three, which define marriage as between a man and a woman. Opponents of Anderson's plan said that his executive order created a class of marriage — domestic partnerships — that violated state law.
The council broadened the categories to include domestic partnerships without explicitly naming them but also allowing city employees to add a parent, a sibling or a good friend.
Anderson has said that the council's plan allows it to sidestep outright endorsing unmarried straight or gay couples. But council members said they just would rather offer health care to more people.
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