lickety jackblog

friends:

the honorable d. prazer asked me to post this for you all. d. is a writer at the chillicothe gazette journal constitution star herald ledger tribune, so he gets the ap wire like a motherfucker. here's one fruit from that tree:

Three state universities to offer full benefits to same-sex partners
By CARRIE
SPENCER
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The manager of chemistry
labs at Miami University was suspicious when she read the e-mail that after 13
years of being turned down, she and other employees would be able to add their
same-sex partners to their health insurance and other benefits starting
Thursday. Now Amanda Whinery is a believer.
Miami and Ohio universities are the
first of the state's public four-year schools to offer health and dental
coverage, free tuition and other paid benefits to employees' partners. Cleveland
State University said it will soon follow.
The forms weren't ready yet at Miami
on Monday, so Whinery says she will return to the personnel office Thursday to
sign up her partner of 15 years, who has been uninsured for the past year.
"It
makes such a big impact on our household, financially and security wise,"
Whinery said. "It's equal pay for equal work."
Robert Glidden, who retires
Wednesday as president of Ohio University in Athens, announced the change at his
final board of trustees meeting. "We are doing this as a matter of fundamental
economic fairness," he said.
The benefits will help recruit and keep employees,
said James Garland, president of Oxford-based Miami.
"The university is not
weighing in on the issue of gay marriage and gay rights," he said. "It's
primarily a business decision."
Trustees at both schools passed resolutions
supporting the benefits even though no action was required.
Cleveland State has
clauses in three of its four union contracts requiring it to offer paid benefits
to same-sex domestic partners if any of the state's other public universities do
so. The benefits will be offered university-wide, said Joseph Nolan, vice
president of administration. Nolan plans to meet with the unions in about 10
days to negotiate details such as when the plan takes effect and how the
benefits will be taxed.
Other four-year universities and Ohio's two public
medical schools with partial or no benefits for domestic partners said they have
no immediate plans to change, but many are watching the policies of other
schools. The issue frequently comes up in contract negotiations at schools with
union-represented employees.
Kent State University has had meetings recently on
the topic. A faculty-staff committee at Bowling Green State University plans to
have a report by fall about whether the benefits should be offered.
"This is an
issue of competition with other universities and even private businesses," Kent
State spokesman Ron Kirksey said. "It looks like everybody is looking at this
now."
The Youngstown State University faculty contract expires next summer, the
first of four pacts to come up for negotiation, spokesman Ron Cole said.
"Certainly the decisions from the other universities are going to play a role in
that."
The state's nearly two-month-old ban on same-sex marriage does not affect
universities' employment benefits such as insurance, said Rep. Bill Seitz, the
Cincinnati Republican who wrote the law that took effect May 7. It applies to
specific privileges granted by law to married people, he said, such as refusing
to testify against a spouse in court, transferring pension benefits to a
surviving spouse or filing a joint tax return.
"What I think about their
decision is not important, because the bill does not preclude them from making
that decision," Seitz said Monday. Gov. Bob Taft and the Ohio Board of Regents
said the business decisions are up to individual employers.
The law ended years
of legal uncertainty about whether public universities could offer the benefits,
Garland said.
The new university benefits aren't identical to those of married
employees because the value must be taxed as income under federal law.
Administrators expect fewer than 20 employees to sign up at each school, adding
$50,000 to $100,000 yearly to insurance benefits that cost about $20 million at
Miami and about $30 million at Ohio.
Whinery, 48, gave birth to John two years
ago, and her partner, Kristen Jacobson, quit her job to care for him in their
Oxford home. John is covered on Whinery's policy, but the couple couldn't afford
more than one year of private insurance for Jacobson. For the past year,
vacations and outings have been planned around avoiding risks and exposure to
germs.
"We knew we couldn't afford an emergency room visit for her," Whinery
said.

Labels: gays, ohio

posted by candycanesammy @ 12:24 PM