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State workers’ domestic partner benefits may be at risk
Susana Martinez (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Gov. Susana Martinez hasn’t decided whether to rescind former Gov. Bill Richardson’s executive order granting domestic partner benefits to state employees, The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting.
“We’re going through the process of reviewing all executive orders signed by the previous administration to determine which ones make most sense — fiscal or otherwise — for the people of New Mexico,” Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
“Any determination on domestic partner benefits for state workers would come at a later date,” he said.
The New Mexican quoted Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico who also personally benefits from the state’s domestic partner benefits program, as saying about 2,300 people will be affected if the order is rescinded.
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This is a touchy subject. I am not looking at this from a straight vs. gay issue. Strictly economics. If any state employee has a friend they want to live with, should the state be mandated to pay benefits to this friend? Should the friend recieve survivor benefits? Just following the law as it currently is written in New Mexico tells me that the answer here is there should be no such benefits. If gay marrige was legal in New Mexico that would present another list of economic variables. to my mind anyone can be a domestic partner. That leaves the state exposed to some unusual costs that are hard to calculate.
From
http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/2010/12/susana-martinez-nominates-out-of-stater-with-florida-and-texas-ties-to-head-nm-human-services.html#more
” Martinez announced that she’ll name Sidonie “Sydney” Squier, 53, to serve as New Mexico’s next Secretary of Human Services, the state agency that oversees Medicaid spending. Current projections by outgoing Human Services”
“Squier also served as a director of the Office of Family Assistance at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from June 2005 to January 2009, during the Bush administration, where she was responsible for administering the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. In that role, she became Bush’s go-to person on so-called marriage promotion, pushing the idea that married couples were being discriminated against in TANF, and that the TANF program should place increased emphasis on encouraging recipients to marry rather than on their getting an education. Squier assisted in the Bush administration’s handing out of grants to “promote healthy marriages,” and was also a supporter of Bush’s “National Responsible Fatherhood Campaign.” ”
“Squier discussed how the reauthorization replaced certain bonuses to the states with a fund for grants to promote “healthy marriages” and “responsible fatherhood” that would be made to neighborhood and community organizations, including religious groups. In addition, she said the new rules permitted states to extend certain “pro-family” benefits and services to anyone, without regard to financial need or family composition, “if the expenditure is to prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock births, or encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent married families.”"
Martinez is going to carry Fundamentalist water. Domestic Partnership whether hetero or homo is an abomination before the fundamentalist God. When Suzanna was voted in, this Fundamentalist God took power over our lives.The Fundamentalists want to make marriage an essential survival strategy for anyone who is not rich. If you are gay, marry another gay person of the opposite sex or just marry anyone of the opposite sex. Stay married or lose your survival benefit. If you are not gay, get married asap. Stay married no matter what or forfeit your survival benefit. Hey, it worked just fine in Medieval times.
Given her animosity for Richardson, Martinez will have a hard time fairly evaluating all of the programs under the Rishardson administration. However, she must do so in order to prover herself an effective manager. Restructuring the pay scales for Cabinet officials is a good step and one that can be widely embraced by a majority of New Mexicans without decreasing government effectiveness.
However, this was a positive step by the Richardson Administration (as was the spaceport) and getting rid of partnership benefits would be a backwards step for our state (and American society in general for that matter) in it’s civil rights evolution in order appease a small minority of religious right extremists. Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell was removed after 78% of Americans supported the repeal, and 52% of Americans currently support the Federal Government giving recognition to gay marriage (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704862604576029963404270114.html).
Martinez and her supporters say she wants government to be more like business? Fine. 57% of Fortune 500 companies (the most successful in America) provide domestic partnership benefits. The more successful a company is, the more likely they are to provide these benefits. Seven out of the top-10 are in this category.
I realize that she hasn’t made a decision on this yet, but I would request that the Governor not spit in the face of the Winds of Change on this one.