Advocate Asks South Florida City Leaders to Offer Domestic Partner Benefits for LGBT Employees
Written by Dylan Bouscher
South Florida Gay News
February 19, 2013
Jessica Blackman wrote a Valentine's Day letter to the Palm Beach Gardens city council. She didn't ask them out - she asked the council to "offer identical family benefits to all of its employees."
According to the Human Rights Campaign, "When employees elect health insurance coverage from their employers for their families, the majority of their employers contribute to at least half of the insurance coverage's cost. For employees with different-sex spouses, federal and state tax law do not require employers to report their contribution to the employee's or the employee's different-sex spouse as taxable wages earned."
Employees with same-sex
partners or spouses, on the other hand, must report their employer's
contribution as taxable wages earned. Some cities, like Oakland Park
and Hallandale Beach, reimburse employees with same-sex partners paying
these taxes. Palm Beach Gardens does not.
In her letter, Blackman, the vice president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council,
commended the city's leadership for unanimously supporting
non-economic benefits like personal, acute illness, and bereavement
leaves, as well as access to the Employee Assistance Program, amid an
economic collapse in 2007.
"Fortunately,
the economy has turned around," Blackman wrote. She adds that the
city's fiscal management has led to a surplus, and that local property
values are stable to support her claim.
And
according to a report attached to Blackman's letter, 2.2 percent of
the city's employees have domestic partners. The report also found
there are more than 60 public employers in Florida already offering
domestic partner benefits for their employees, and most employers
offering domestic partner benefits report a less-than-one-percent
increase in total benefit costs.
But
the report does not confirm exactly how much extending coverage would
cost Palm Beach Gardens, or exactly how much the city's surplus is this
fiscal year. SFGN contacted Palm Beach Gardens Vice Mayor Bert
Premuroso for comment, but as of publication time, he could not be
reached.
"We're
really just pushing Palm Beach Gardens to step up now that money
doesn't necessarily seem to be an issue," Blackman told SFGN. "I haven't
received a response from anybody, negative or positive, so we're being
optimistic."
