Domestic partner law is in motion
OLYMPIA – The balloons, the “just registered” signs on cars and the news cameras are long gone, but hundreds of people continue to register as domestic partners each month. A year after the state began registering domestic partners, nearly 4,300 couples have signed up.
Although not marriage, the legal designation grants the couples some of the rights and responsibilities enjoyed by spouses. Like spouses, for example, they have the legal right to visit each other in the hospital and to make end-of-life decisions for each other.
“The first year has gone smoothly,” said Secretary of State Sam Reed. His corporations division registers the couples and issues them a certificate and plastic wallet cards.
The state doesn’t track how many of the couples are same-sex couples. Although the change was a long-sought victory for gays and lesbians, the law also allows heterosexual senior citizen couples to register. The move was aimed at helping elderly partners who are afraid to remarry for fear of losing pensions or other benefits tied to a deceased spouse.
As for the flip side of love: so far, about 110 of the couples have dissolved their partnerships.
Gay and lesbian groups and lawmakers say they’ll continue to push for legal same-sex marriage here. Massachusetts and California already allow it. Washington’s social conservatives fought the domestic partnerships law, but couldn’t muster anywhere close to enough votes to stop it. In fact, lawmakers this spring overwhelmingly voted to broaden the rights of domestic partners.
“We are moving forward,” said Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, the longest-serving of several openly gay state lawmakers in Washington and a strong proponent of same-sex marriage.
What state employees pay for health care…
The state Health Care Authority recently announced that it will cost taxpayers about 8 percent more to provide health insurance for state employees next year.
The average state employee will pay $91 a month for health insurance in 2009, compared to $79 now. They pay an average of 12 percent of what the insurance actually costs. Taxpayers pay the rest.
If you’re a typical private-sector worker, stop reading now – you’ll only feel insurance-envy. But most state employees choose the popular Uniform Medical Plan, which costs a worker $26 a month, or $82 a month for a full family. HMO-based plans range from $25 a worker to $304 for a family, depending on the plan.
For years, state workers made the case that good benefits and retirements made up for salaries that lagged significantly behind the private sector. But salary’s less of an issue today. Under Gov. Chris Gregoire, funding for state worker pay and benefits has risen 31 percent in four years.
Also on these health plans: State lawmakers. A Vancouver-area lawmaker this spring said that lawmakers should feel the same financial pain as average citizens. He proposed making lawmakers get their own insurance.
The bill, not surprisingly, went nowhere.
How to tell it’s an election year…
You can be certain it’s an election year when politicians’ schedules blossom with a bumper crop of festivals and ribbon-cuttings.
Recently, for example, Gov. Chris Gregoire was slated to attend a chamber of commerce meeting in the high school at Coupeville, population 1,850. Later in the week: A mall grand opening in Tukwila, and Renton’s River Days parade.
Challenger Dino Rossi, meanwhile, marched in a parade in Davenport, had pizza with business folks in Othello, and hit Snohomish’s Kla-Ha-Ya Days parade – in one day.
Today should find him touring the National Forest Timber Museum in Forks. And tomorrow, he’ll be throwing out the first pitch at a Yakima Bears minor-league game.
Not exactly the Batman premiere…
A state ethics board recently ruled that Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, technically broke the rules when he handed out campaign flyers – upon request, apparently – to folks at a town hall meeting in little DuPont. The board decided to drop the matter, saying it’s too minor to merit discipline.
The most amusing part of the report, however – and a cautionary note to any political hopefuls thinking a statehouse seat confers some star power – is the reference to “one or both of the two members of the public in attendance” at the town hall meeting.
Meanwhile, in the middleweight division…
I’ve been writing a lot lately about the political broadsides in the governor’s race, but there’s a little-noticed race that’s nearly as heated: the attorney general’s race.
The state Democrats this week filed a nine-page complaint against Attorney General Rob McKenna, saying the Republican is appearing in industry-backed public service announcements that look an awful lot like political ads. The party wants the ads considered campaign contributions.
“This is a clear and illegal use of public office for political campaigning and a clear violation of public disclosure laws,” charged John Ladenburg, the Democratic former prosecutor trying to unseat McKenna.
Among the ads in question: a 30-second identity-theft TV ad featuring McKenna and McGruff the crime dog. Ladenburg’s also critical of a McKenna anti-drunk-driving ad paid for by distillers.
If elected, Ladenburg says, he’ll propose a ban on an elected official’s name, picture or title appearing in any public-service announcement during an election year.
McKenna spokesman Adam Faber scoffed at the complaint.
“We just consider it to be a desperate tactic by a man who’s far behind us by any measure,” Faber said.
The state GOP was hotter, saying that Democrats “are so desperate to resuscitate the floundering campaign of their lackluster and ethically-challenged attorney general candidate, John Ladenburg, that they’ve wildly fired a shot in their own foot.”
The Republicans called the charges hypocrisy, noting that Gov. Chris Gregoire also appears in public service announcements.