Fri Dec 09, 2005 at 07:57:37 AM EST
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After weeks of silence on the issue, the editorial board of the state's second largest newspaper is urging Ocean (and Monmouth) County's freeholders to pass domestic partner benefits for county employees. Extend benefits to gay partners:The Ocean County freeholders should drop their opposition to extending domestic-partnership benefits to county employees. This would finally allow a county Prosecutor's Office investigator dying of lung cancer to pass along her pension benefits to her domestic partner.
The freeholders have resisted the request by Laurel Hester of Point Pleasant primarily on financial grounds, citing the impact on the state's deficit-laden pension system. Freeholder John P. Kelly also has voiced concern that a domestic partnership resolution would violate the sanctity of marriage.
The freeholders are wrong on both grounds. This is a matter of civil rights, a matter of fairness. The state Domestic Partnership Act provides health and pension benefits for state employees and permits counties and local governments to do the same for their employees. The Ocean freeholders should join their colleagues in Bergen, Hudson, Mercer and Union counties, as well as more than 100 municipalities, in passing a resolution extending domestic partnership rights. The Monmouth County freeholder board should do the same. |
| Juan Melli :: Asbury Park Press urges Ocean County freeholders to pass domestic partner benefits |
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