Rep. Greg Harris' SB 1716 is likely to be voted on Tuesday or Wednesday this week, and part of the decision state lawmakers will need to face is whether Illinois can financially afford the spousal benefits legalizing same sex civil unions will cost Illinois taxpayers.
While gay rights activists insist the number of gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender persons are now at the levels of 10 percent of the American population, when asked how much legalizing same sex civil unions could cost Illinois taxpayers, the state's budget office minimalized the projected number of LGBTs to be only one percent of the state's population.
Using the fraction of a fraction as the projected number of LGBT state employees whose same sex partners may eventually benefit from the state workers' pension plans, the budget office gave this report in answer to a pension note query filed by State Rep. David Reis (R-Willow Hill):
SB 245 from the 96th General Assembly allowed members of TRS and the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to designate a domestic partner as a surviving spouse for purposes of survivor and death benefits (SB 245 has not advanced out of committee). Based on that legislation, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability's actuary estimated that if 1% of active TRS members designate a domestic partner as a beneficiary for survivor benefits, the impact to the system would be as follows; (1) Increase in total actuarial liability = $15,750,000; (2) Increase in total annual costs = $1,838,000; (3) Increase in total annual costs as a payment of payroll = $0.02%.
The pension note focused on survivor benefits, but health care costs were not included in the estimation. The budget office said they can't estimate the cost to Central Management Services:
The Department of Central Management Services will incur some operational expenses due to programming modifications to the Group Insurance membership system, as well as other operational expenses to bring other programs in line with the changes made under this bill. This bill could also expand, to the partner, death benefit rights under the Workers' Compensation Act. Additional costs would occur under the Deferred Compensation program as well as Group Insurance. An estimate, however, cannot be determined due to the unknown number of civil unions that would occur under this bill, as amended.
How do you estimate that cost of a program when you don't have any idea how many will participate? How many gays, lesbians and bisexuals are there, and is the 1% the office used realistic?
About.com asked Gary J. Gates, a Senior Research Fellow at The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, about the number of gays, lesbians and bisexuals nationwide. He answered:
"That's the single question that I'm asked the most. The answer is unfortunately not simple. I'll respond with a question. What do you mean when you use the word 'gay'? If you mean people who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual in a survey, then the answer is that it's likely not one in ten, but closer to one in twenty. A recent government survey found that 4 percent of adults aged 18-45 identified as 'homosexual' or 'bisexual.' A similar proportion of voters identify as GLB. If you define gay as having same-sex attractions or behaviors, you do get higher proportions that are a bit closer to the one in ten figure."
So while the state has no real idea how many same sex state employees will unite with a partner if civil unions are legalized, they acknowledge same sex civil union spousal benefits will impose a larger burden on Illinois taxpayers for health care and survivor benefits.
