Only 178 State Employee Domestic Partnerships Claimed

This past spring, Governor Rod Blagojevich unilaterally decided that homosexual and lesbian non-union employees would henceforth receive employee benefits for their partners, just as if they were a married couple.

Previously, he had signed a contract that granted the same benefits to union employees, starting July 1st.

I predicted the governor’s cost estimate was way too high. His estimate was $2.2 million, based on his projection of ½ of 1% of the state’s employees signing up. Public Information Officer Justin DeJong told me that 550 were expected.

That would mean there are about 110,000 state and university employees.

Since the state’s new fiscal year has just begun, let’s see who was correct.

178 state and university employees signed up for domestic partner benefits, according to DeJong. He said the cost estimate is $800,000, considerably lower than $2.2 million.

Since only 178 signed up, one could assume that less than 2/10 of 1% of state employees are homosexuals or lesbians who decided to opt for state health care and other dependent benefits. That’s not exactly the ½ of 1% predicted by the governor.

When I put my May story on Illinoize, one person commented that his current medical benefits were better than the state’s, so why would he want to sign up. That may explain some of the shortfall, but one would assume that whoever made the estimate Blagojevich used would have taken such factors into consideration.

As a former manager of the Bureau of Benefits for the Department of Central Management Services and a retired state employee, I already knew that the sign-up period was during May, but DeJong reminded me and then said,

We expect additional domestic partners to be enrolled in the future. But this was a great first step and was an important commitment that Gov Blagojevich made to ensure equality for employees in the state work force.

In May, I asked the University of Illinois for statistics on domestic partnership benefits. Here’s what I found:

Then, there were 48 who signed up their partners. Here’s the campus breakdown:

Chicago 31, estimated annual cost - $41,000
Urbana 14, estimated annual cost - $1,200
Springfield 3, estimated annual cost - $18,000

The program reimburses the employee for insurance premiums on a quarterly basis, so benefits are not automatic. Some effort is required on the part of the employee. I have multiplied the average quarterly cost so far this year by four to obtain the figures above. Using this methodology, the total for the year would be $60,800.

The University of Illinois has 23,660 full-time equivalent employees, so that about 2/10ths of 1% signing up, almost exactly the percentage signing up under Blagojevich’s new plan.

So, the state finally has some good fiscal news. A new program that costs less than predicted.

DeJohn did reveal an interesting tid-bit. State Treasurer Judy Topinka was the only constitutionally elected officer who did not decide to put her employees into the program. (He put it more neutrally, of course.)

I wonder why. She had no such compunction about being in the (Gay) Pride Parade.

More political stories at McHenry County Blog during this 4th of July break for most bloggers.