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Equal marriage benefits bill on hold
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Though he drafted a bill in September to offer equal benefits to all county employees who are either married or registered as domestic partners, Legislator Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Neck) said he'd hold off pursuing the legislation in light of County Executive Steve Levy's recent vow — to issue an executive order accomplishing the same goal.
An executive order, which doesn't require the Legislature's approval, would amend the contracts for each of the county's nine labor units, Cooper said.
"Once they agree to it there's no going back," Cooper said. "Even if a future county executive wanted to rescind it, he couldn't because by then they would all have new contracts with the unions."
While New York State does not perform same-sex marriages, it recognizes as legitimate same-sex marriages that were legally performed in other states. On the East Coast, same-sex marriages are legal in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. Meanwhile, many benefits guaranteed to opposite-sex county employees are denied to same-sex couples because of the way contracts were written by labor bargaining units, Cooper said.
A couple of gay employees alerted Cooper that secondary benefits weren't available to them, namely leave time for family medical care, bereavement and child care.
To be fully inclusive, Cooper said the contracts need to include not only same-sex county-employed couples who married in another state but also those are registered as domestic partners in Suffolk County.
When the County Executive came into office, he allowed the use of the registry whereby all domestic partners of county employees were given access to the full complement of county benefits, said Levy's spokesman Dan Aug.
"So that opportunity is being extended out to all members of the collective bargaining units who work for the county," Aug said.
As long as the outcome is the same, it makes no difference to Cooper if equal rights come from legislation or from executive decree. "From now on any same sex couple, whether they're domestic partners or whether they're married, they'll be treated exactly the same by Suffolk County," Cooper said. "Based on that, I've tabled my bill. And assuming that the County Executive lives up to his end of the bargain, which I'm sure he will — ultimately once that's etched in stone — I'll withdraw my bill."
This version CORRECTS the status of New York State marriage law mentioned in Paragraph 4.
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