GOP lawmakers sue to open meeting on domestic-partner benefits

Two Republican legislative leaders in Pennsylvania on Tuesday sued to block a state agency's board from meeting privately to consider extending health care benefits to same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples who live together.

The preliminary-injunction request, filed in commonwealth court by house majority leader Sam Smith and house appropriations committee chairman Brett Feese, seeks to force the Pennsylvania Employee Benefits Trust Fund's board to vote on the extension of such benefits in a public meeting.

Smith and Feese contend that a private board meeting scheduled for Thursday would violate the state's Sunshine Act because the board would be taking official action that "could result in additional assessments to the commonwealth." "To consider acknowledging legally unrecognized relationships during secret meetings, the [board] would be usurping the powers of the general assembly," Smith said in a statement.

Tommy Teague, the fund's executive director, declined comment Tuesday. David Fillman, chairman of the fund's board, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Contracts ratified in 2003 by unions representing tens of thousands of state workers call for providing family leave and sick leave for domestic partners, regardless of sexual orientation. But the employees benefits fund, which administers health care benefits for about 85,000 eligible state employees and their dependents, has yet to authorize those benefits.

A separate agreement ratified in 2004 by about 5,500 unionized state university professors also leaves open the possibility of similar domestic-partner benefits, but only if the benefits are authorized for the other state workers.

In letters to Fillman and state budget secretary Michael Masch, who is also a board member, Smith and Feese noted that fund trustees testified during state budget hearings that the fund's reserve had been depleted and that state agencies would have to pay $400 per active employee in the 2005-2006 fiscal year to help replenish it. "Thus, deliberations and action by the [fund] on issues of employee medical benefits are of utmost concern to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania," their letter said. The state budget provides $654 million to fund the health-care benefits. (AP)