WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsLocal Woman: Keep Domestic Partner Protection in Budget
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Eau Claire (WQOW) - An issue that came up at Friday afternoon's state budget forum has been at the heart of a big debate in recent years. Expanded protections for same sex couples and allowing state employees to extend their healthcare coverage to domestic partners is included in Governor Jim Doyle's budget.
Critics say these items should not be in the budget and they should be separate bills, others, like Laura Sommer, urged the state's Joint Finance Committee to support the governor's proposal.
Sommer says, "If you're married, you can cover your spouse. If you're gay and you have a long term partner, you can't cover them. So obviously there's a disparity there and it affects people."
Laura Sommers moved to Eau Claire three years ago so her partner could take a job at UE-Eau Claire. She says she's lucky enough to work for a company that allows her to extend her healthcare benefits to her partner.
But Sommers says, "They just announced this year they're going to lay off another 4500 so it's getting tight. If I knew I could be covered if I did lose my job, it would give us a huge piece of mind."
Along with healthcare benefits, if is passes, the governor's budget proposal would also provide basic legal protections to same sex couples for things like hospital visitations and end of life decisions.
"We have our papers, but who carries your legal papers with you all the time. Do you have your healthcare proxy on your person at all times, every time you leave the house in case of an emergency? I mean that's sort of very unreal, very impractical," says Sommers.
Laura's fight is for her and her partner to have similar rights as married couples. If these measures are passed along with the budget, those are two battles they will have won.
"If it happened ten years ago, that would have been the best. But we've been working for it, so that's all I can hope." says Sommers.
One reason the governor is asking lawmakers to extend healthcare benefits for domestic partners of state employees is to help recruit faculty to the U-W system. That is because U-W Madison is the only big 10 school that doesn't allow faculty to do that.
