With the recent Senate passage of the state budget, a proposal to extend health benefits to the domestic partners of all state employees has gone further than it ever has before.
It’s also the most comprehensive proposal to date, covering all state employees — not just University of Wisconsin System staff — and municipal employees.
And while it’s unlikely that Assembly Republicans, who have opposed domestic partner benefits in the past, will include it in their version of the budget, it may well be a negotiating point in the down-and-dirty work of the conference committee, which is charged with reconciling the Assembly and Senate versions of the budget.