(AP) – Wisconsin’s same-sex couples are a big step closer to having their relationships recognized by the state.
The Legislature’s budget committee voted 12-4 Friday for a plan allowing gay and lesbian couples who live together to form domestic partnerships and receive some of the same benefits as married couples.
If the plan becomes law, Wisconsin would be the first state to legalize domestic partnerships despite a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage and “substantially similar” same-sex relationships.
Five states allow gay marriage, and others permit civil unions and domestic partnerships.
The Wisconsin plan would allow couples who register with their county register of deeds to jointly own property, inherit each other’s assets and visit each other in the hospital, among other things.
“We are simply trying to allow for committed same-sex couples to get some of the most basic protections allowed by state government,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, the openly gay co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee who married his partner in Canada in 2006.
The committee also voted 12-4 for Doyle’s plan to give the domestic partners of state employees the same state retirement and health insurance benefits as spouses. The University of Wisconsin System has long sought that change, saying it’s hard to recruit talented gay and lesbian employees without those benefits.
The plans have strong support among Democrats. Gov. Jim Doyle introduced them and the committee passed them on partisan lines. They now need approval from the Democratic-controlled Legislature to become law, which is considered likely.
Republicans said the benefits would cost too much and violate the will of the nearly 60 percent of voters who approved a 2006 constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman and outlawing anything “substantially similar” for gay couples.
One group, the Wisconsin Family Council, is already threatening to challenge the plan in court if it becomes law.
Supporters say the partnerships fall far short of marriage. Partners could not jointly file taxes or receive some 200 other legal rights granted to married people. The committee amended the plan Friday to say the Legislature does not consider domestic partnerships the same as marriage.
One study has estimated between 1,400 and 5,000 same-sex couples in Wisconsin would sign up for the registry in the first year. The study was based on other states’ experiences and U.S. Census Bureau data showing about 14,000 same-sex couples in Wisconsin.
Partners would not have to testify against each other in court, could jointly own their homes and would qualify for family and medical leave from work to care for each other. The relationships could be ended with a notice of termination.
Jenny Pressman, 49, of Madison, said she and her partner of 26 years would join the registry, which would begin 30 days after the bill was signed into law. She said they have spent thousands of dollars creating “extensive legal documents” trying to give themselves some of the protections that would be granted.
“I think this is a way to achieve as much fairness and equality as is possible without running afoul of the law,” she said. “It will give gays and lesbians some limited but basic protections. A lot of these issues would come up only rather dire circumstances – and that’s when you want those protections in place and don’t want to have to worry about it.”
Unlike the registry, the proposal to treat domestic partners the same as spouses for state retirement and health insurance benefits would apply to same-sex and opposite-sex partners.
Between 1 and 2 percent of employees would be expected to sign up their partners, which would increase insurance costs by about that amount, or as much as $16 million per year, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
