Ignorance Over Information, Benefits Measure Fails

The County Board had another blunder today when they failed to override Walker’s veto of a study on the possibility of providing health care benefits for domestic partners of eligible employees.

Those voting against it used the meme that it would cost $3.9  million.

But there are a few factual errors with that meme.  One, the study would not cost nearly that much, since it would be done with information already in the County’s position and done by County staff.

If they are referring to the benefits that wouldn’t even be applied without another whole series of votes, vetoes and more votes, they are still lying.  The City of Milwaukee, which has already reached a higher plateau of equality than the County, and did so years ago, has a whopping total of 30 employees taking advantage of the expanded benefits, which translated into only a 0.2% increase in benefits costs.

So, if money is not the issue, and at this stage, it is not, what are the opponents of equality afraid of?  Or is it merely their irrational hatred of things they don’t understand that is preventing equality from prevailing?

Some supervisors, like Chris Larson, are promising to bring this issue up again in the future:

“Nevertheless, introducing this resolution was an important first step in getting on the right side of history, and I applaud my colleagues that voted in favor of calling for this study. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board wrote this morning, ‘it is a matter of fairness for heterosexual couples, too.’ I will continue to fight for equality in Milwaukee County government. It’s the right thing to do, and I will not waver from my position.

“Although we may not have been victorious today, we will continue to push for fairness. The City of Milwaukee, State of Wisconsin, and a majority of Fortune 500 companies already offer this benefit. There is little doubt that the arc of history will continue to bend toward equality. Now that we have begun to have this conversation in Milwaukee County, we are one step closer to providing more fair and equitable employee benefits.”

Larson is, of course, correct in his statements.  Unfortunately, due to the bigotry of Supervisors Borkowski, Cesarz, De Bruin, Mayo, Rice, Sanfelippo and Schmitt, there are many people that will have to needlessly go through further injustices until these seven are either out of office or come to see the error in their ways.

That is the real shame.