Janesville City Council to discuss extending insurance
JANESVILLE--Two Janesville council members have asked the council to extend health and funeral benefits to the domestic partners of city employees.
No public hearing is scheduled as part of Monday’s city council meeting, but residents can sign up and speak on any agenda item at the beginning of the 7 p.m. meeting in City Hall, 18 N. Jackson St.
Councilmen Sam Liebert and Yuri Rashkin proposed the resolution.
Susan Musick, human resources director, said it is difficult to predict the financial implications.
She cited the experiences of other public sector employers. Some said the cost to extend coverage to domestic partners was about 1 percent of the health plan cost, which for Janesville would be about $70,000 a year.
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Feb 16, 2012 at 7:32 p.m.
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If you are gay why should you get special privilages? So anybody that has any kind of significant other should get "married" benefits??? NO- this has nothing to do with discrimination either. NOT MARRIED no bennies- simple!
Feb 16, 2012 at 7:29 p.m.
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I have a question. If two people do NOT marry for whatever reason they would NOT get benefits of any kind. So WHY would people who are gay get any benefit either. You cannot be legally married here and until you can legally be married then NO you cannot have benefits. SIMPLE!
Feb 11, 2012 at 9:35 a.m.
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So those who have partners on the city budget don't want to be named even though they display themselves in public??????
why delete my comment???
Feb 11, 2012 at 6:48 a.m.
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No reason to remove comments that are fact filled, that make comments about how immoral this really is.
Feb 11, 2012 at 5:07 a.m.
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Let those two socialist morons pay for it if they want it so bad
Feb 10, 2012 at 5:16 p.m.
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This Liebert clown has got to go. Nothing more than a deadbeat with a tie. He's not qualified to run a neighborhood block party. (Unless he can get a "richer" neighborhood to pay for the food and beverages.) What a freakin' sponge!
Feb 10, 2012 at 2:41 p.m.
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Correction: Leechville.....had my mind elsewhere.... thoughts of rising taxes
Feb 10, 2012 at 2:37 p.m.
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While they are at it, maybe the "Council" should also include health and funeral benefits for the employee's pets as well......What a farce....Janesville can't afford anything right now, especially something as far reaching as this....so, how would this roll if an employee has more than one domestic partner??? Maybe we should just cover the entire population of Janesville and change the name to Leachville.
Feb 10, 2012 at 1:49 p.m.
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If Leibart and Falkshkin care so much the issue why don't they start writing personal checks to subsidize this insanity.....leave the taxpayers out of it...
Feb 10, 2012 at 11:49 a.m.
Feb 10, 2012 at 10:59 a.m.
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If you read between the lines all this is for the city to pay Health Ins. for your live in partner,reguardless of sex orientation. As far as funeral benifits ,what they are saying is giving the employee off in case of a death of a live in partner. Right now their contract allows so many days off depending on their relationship to the deceased. Right now I don't believe there is an allowence for "Domestic or Live In Partners"
Feb 10, 2012 at 10:54 a.m.
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Well this will certainly create of lot of jobs. I agree with the comments about Rashkin and Liebert. Their stand on family values was already apparent.
Feb 10, 2012 at 10:11 a.m.
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"Nothing more than a deadbeat with a tie"
we need a "like" button on the Gazette.
Feb 10, 2012 at 9:43 a.m.
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This Liebert clown has got to go. Nothing more than a deadbeat with a tie. He's not qualified to run a neighborhood block party. (Unless he can get a "richer" neighborhood to donate the food and beverages.) What a freakin' sponge!
Feb 10, 2012 at 9:21 a.m.
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Funeral benefit for those who don't know I believe is a couple days of paid time to take off.
Feb 10, 2012 at 9:20 a.m.
Feb 10, 2012 at 7:39 a.m.
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Leave it these two to come with yet another way to spend more taxpayer money. Do they not understand how strapped the taxpayers of Janesville are already? When these guys are off the council, it will be “addition by subtraction".
Feb 10, 2012 at 7:29 a.m.
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totellthetruth said: "Not surprising that Rashkin is behind this"
I'm not surprised either. Yuri seems to be one of the more level-headed people on the city council.
I'm just sayin' WOOT!...
Feb 10, 2012 at 7:19 a.m.
Feb 10, 2012 at 7:05 a.m.
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cynical--As it is right now, if a person dies and they do not have funeral insurance and they haven't left behind enough in assets to cover the cost, taxpayers already pay for the cost of the funeral and cemetary costs. Taxpayers have paid for these for many, many years through the county funeral program. You can't just leave the dead bodies lying around because they haven't left behind the means to bury them.
Feb 10, 2012 at 6:58 a.m.
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Funeral benefits? Really? So taxpayers pay the tab when you die?
Feb 10, 2012 at 6:31 a.m.
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hhmmm....proposed by two councilmen who are currently campaigning for higher office. Imagine that. Ulterior motives, perhaps?
Feb 10, 2012 at 6:16 a.m.
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How many domestic partners work for the city ? Are they both city employees you just one and the other works someplace else and does that someplace else not cover them and if not, why not. I would think the $70,000 would be better spent paying down some debt or even hiring back a teacher. For a city that seems to be so poor, why is the city throwing away so much money. Just some questions.
Feb 10, 2012 at 6:04 a.m.
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funeral benefits, what is that?
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