Domestic partner ordinance proposed

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The City-County Council of Indianapolis is expected to vote on a proposal to expand the availability of city insurance benefits.

The proposal is a domestic partner ordinance. This idea is new for Indianapolis, but not for Bloomington.

Since 1997, Bloomington has offered insurance coverage to unmarried partners of city workers, as long as they are in committed relationships.

Daniel Grundmann is in charge of the program for the City of Bloomington. He knows there was opposition to it but that was 15 years ago.

"We see ourselves as a fairly progressive community in many ways,” Grundmann said. “It's not been a burden to our workforce. It's not been a burden to our benefit plan."

To address concerns, the City-County Council has studied and revised its proposal.

The sponsor says it will offer coverage to unmarried couples, gay or straight, as long as they prove they're in committed relationships.

In Bloomington, city engineer Jane Fleig and her partner appreciate their coverage.

"My partner is working with a local small firm that does not have insurance benefits,” Fleig said. “So, to have that option is just great."

In Bloomington, the concept is similar to the design for Indianapolis. Neither is a giveaway because the IRS does not recognize domestic partnerships.

"So not only do you pay the premium contribution like any spousal situation but you also have to pay taxes on the value of the benefit which somebody in a traditional marriage does not have to do,” Fleig said.

Some people in domestic partnerships won't claim the benefits because of the extra costs to them.

But, Grundmann says the city hasn't seen the higher costs or anything else the critics feared.

"The amount of energy in all of the ways administrative, political, etcetera, that went into that is magnitudes greater than the amount of energy it's taken the past 15 years to administer the plan,” Grundmann said. “It's really a non-issue for us."

Sponsor Angela Mansfield says for Indianapolis the estimated cost is likely to be only a fraction less than one percent of the entire human resources budget.

There will be number of paperwork requirements to prove couples have lived together for at least a year and are jointly responsible for their living expenses.