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| Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire |
 Senator pushes legislation: Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, speaks Monday during a floor session in Juneau. Senate page Phaedra McKinnon looks on in the background. |
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The Alaska Legislature called Monday for a statewide vote on amending the Constitution to bar state and local governments from providing employment benefits to same-sex partners of public employees and retirees.
The vote proposal was included in one of two bills passed by the Legislature aimed at blocking implementation of the court-ordered benefits. The Senate approved the two bills Monday, and adjourned from the fourth session of the year. The House of Representatives had passed the same bills and adjourned Friday.
The special session was called by Gov. Frank Murkowski to deal with the benefits issue after the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of a challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska. The court found the denial of benefits to same-sex partners unconstitutional.
On Sunday, Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, gave several passionate floor speeches opposing the benefits. He suggested that providing benefits to people who weren't married could weaken marriage.
"Marriage is special," he said.
Seekins said he was concerned that regulations for such benefits might be so loose that a roommate might qualify for health care.
Seekins said people in Alaska thought they had already barred marriage-type benefits for unmarried people in a 1998 constitutional amendment. He was defeated for re-election in November.
State Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, said the controversial bills meant little.
"The Legislature thumbed its nose at the court, but it has no real effect," he said.
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| Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire |
| Special session adjourns: Commissioner of Administration Scott Nordstrand talks with Sen. Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, on Monday in the halls of the Capitol. The Senate passed two bills agreeing with House bills passed last week during the special session. |
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One measure would bar the state commissioner for administration from giving benefits to same-sex partners.
The second bill set an advisory vote on April 3 to ask voters whether to bar benefits for same-sex partners of state and local government employees and retirees as well.
That would stop cities such as Anchorage and Juneau, which already provide the benefits for same-sex partners, from continuing them. It would also stop benefits for University of Alaska employees that already receive them.
The bills must be signed by the governor and will not go into effect until 90 days after they are endorsed. That would be well past the Jan. 1 deadline imposed by the court. It would also be well into the next legislative session.
Sen. Lyda Green, a Wasilla Republican, supported the vote bill, saying it would reaffirm the voter-approved definition of marriage from eight years ago.
"It's only appropriate we go back to them to see if they want benefits, paid for with public money, to go to the same-sex partners of state employees and retirees," she said.
Both bills passed both the House and the Senate easily, largely along party lines. Juneau Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch crossed over to vote against the bill barring adoption of the new regulations, however.
Even if the voters recommend amending the constitution, it would still take a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to place the measure on the ballot in the 2008 general election.
Elton and others said it would be difficult to find the votes, especially in a more Democratic Legislature. Seekins, who is not returning, was one the stongest proponents of the recent measures.
The constitution now requires all state employees who do equal work to get equal pay, and that means providing benefits for all partners, married or not, said Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage.
"It was an easy call for our Supreme Court to make," he said.
French called the bill barring same-sex benefits "clearly unconstitutional."
Several Republican legislators objected to the court's role, however. It should be up the Legislature to decide on the benefits, they said.
"I believe it is a separation of powers issue," said Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River. "No one here that I know of is against equal pay for equal work," he said.
The bills are HB 4001 and HB 4002.
• Pat Forgey can be reached at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com
