MacIver News Service – [Madison, Wisc...] Providing health insurance benefits to the domestic partners of state employees will cost more than $7 million dollars this year.

On Tuesday, the Department of Employee Trust Funds reported 700 employees have switched from single to family coverage to take advantage of the extended benefits. That will cost the state $7.4 million dollars this year. $3.1 million of that will come from general purpose tax revenues and $4.3 million will come from program revenues and segregated funds.

Even though the benefits are currently coming in under projections, some state lawmakers are disappointed the state chose to offer additional benefits while facing a $6.6 billion deficit at the time the budget bill was drafted. For Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) a $7.4 million price tag is no cause for celebration.

“Both numbers struck me as high,” said Grothman. “Both the 700 people and the $7.4 million.”

Grothman pointed out that with 70,000 state employees, 700 people taking advantage of the new benefits amounts to a full one percent of the workforce.

The new domestic partner benefits were adopted as part of the state’s biennial budget last summer. They went into effect on January 1, 2010. The Department of Employee Trust Funds released their cost estimate at a meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules on Tuesday.

Domestic partner state benefits are different from the state’s domestic partner registry. Domestic partner benefits are available to same sex and heterosexual couples who have one partner who receives employee benefits while working for the State.

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