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County Shuns Discussions On Domestic Partner Benefits

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By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: January 23, 2009

TAMPA - Kevin Beckner pleaded with his fellow Hillsborough County commissioners Thursday to break the restraints of the past and reopen the issue of providing health care benefits for the unmarried domestic partners of county employees.

He failed to win them over.

In the end, only Commissioner Rose Ferlita supported Beckner as he tried to revoke a 2004 commission resolution prohibiting the county from even studying the pros and cons of domestic partner health insurance coverage.

Shortly after the stinging 5-2 defeat, Beckner, the commission's only openly gay member, insisted he was not trying to advance a "gay agenda" and insinuated that some commissioners were using the tough economic times to conceal their true reasons for voting against the measure.

"I think it's pretty evident, at least for some of the board members, that they really don't want to address what their core feelings really are," Beck- ner said after the meeting.
Beckner was asking the commission for the right to ask the county's staff to study the costs of offering domestic partner benefits. Even that is prohibited by a 4-3 vote of the 2004 commission, although only two members from that commission - Jim Norman and Ken Hagan - remain on the board.
Beckner said he wanted to free the current commission from the "handcuffs" of the 2004 resolution. The county is now seeking bidders on a health care insurance contract, and Beckner said the chance to get quotes on expanded coverage won't come again for three years.

"We should openly consider issues without having our hands tied by other boards," he said.

But even studying the possibility of expanding benefits would send the wrong signal during a time of widespread economic misery, several commissioners said.
Commissioner Mark Sharpe held up a copy of The Wall Street Journal, citing an article about President Barak Obama freezing the pay of White House staff.

"I think for us to simply say at this time that we're even studying expanding government benefits at a time when everyone else is tightening their belt and the president himself has frozen salaries ... would be the wrong message," Sharpe said.

Even Ferlita, who voted with Beckner on allowing a study, said his timing was bad.

"I couldn't support expanding coverage because of the financial status of this community and this county," she said.

Rather than cite the economy, Norman said his opposition was grounded in conservative principles.

"I believe family benefits should be between a husband and a wife," he said.

Although disagreeing with Norman, Beckner thanked him for being "direct" in his comments.

Expanding coverage to domestic partners would increase the county's health care costs by 1.25 percent to 2 percent a year, said Christina Swanson, county director of risk management and employee benefits. Even without the expanded benefits, medical inflation is expected to drive the county's insurance costs up 2.5 percent next year, she said.

Swanson estimated expanding the coverage would cost about $1 million a year.

Under questioning from Beckner, however, Swanson conceded she didn't know how many employees would sign up for coverage.

"So we don't truly know what the impact would be to the county because we really have no idea, we've never studied the issue," Beckner said.

Tampa began offering domestic partner health care benefits in 2004. The extra coverage cost the city an additional $73,000 a year.

Florida cities and counties that provide domestic partner benefits include Orlando, Broward County, Miami-Dade County, Miami Beach, Key West and West Palm Beach.

Terry Kemple, president of the conservative Community Issues Council, told commissioners that domestic partner coverage is an assault on traditional marriage. Kemple expressed astonishment that Beckner would even broach the subject at a time of widespread government cutbacks.

"Financially, this agenda item amazes me," Kemple said.

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