News
2005-07-21
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
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)
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