Michael Matheson
Matheson (left) and Austin will wed later this month.
Kris Austin and Michael Matheson have been together for 20 years. In 2007, they registered as domestic partners so Austin could receive health care benefits through Matheson’s employer, the city of Madison. The couple never planned on getting married but then along came Gov. Scott Walker’s state budget.
“We are getting married later this month. We are happy to do it, really. But it isn’t a choice,” says Austin. “It’s either get married or pay a lot more for health care. They’ve got us over a barrel.”
The budget, signed into law on Sept. 21, ends health benefits for the domestic partners of state and municipal employees and effectively eliminates domestic partner benefits for future public-sector workers. The separate domestic partner registry, which allows for limited rights, including inheritance and hospital visitation, is not going away but no new couples can join.
“We own a house together. We own a business together. We have a child together,” says Austin. “We just don’t have the piece of paper.”
Matheson says he and Austin are “pretty secular” people who never saw a need to formally tie the knot. Since their daughter will still be on Matheson’s health care plan, the couple would pay the same amount even though Austin would no longer be covered. Austin runs the Fair Oaks Diner, which the couple own.
“When we first met, we were both economically independent and established. We were a little bit older when we got together,” says Matheson. “Some people just don’t want to get married, for whatever reason.”
“We always said that if it bothered our daughter, then we would get married,” Austin adds. “But it never came up. She didn’t care. Why should the state?”
Mark Lamkins, communications director for the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, says 4,400 couples — 78 percent of whom are opposite-gender couples — will be affected by the changes to domestic partner benefits. Existing domestic partnerships will still be eligible for Wisconsin Retirement System benefits but no new couples will be. By eliminating benefits for domestic partners, the state is expecting to save $4.4 million over two years.
“The biggest change impacting our members is definitely the health care benefits,” Lamkins says. “We sent out a letter last week alerting affected members of the change. Before the law was passed, we did our best to communicate that this might be coming.”
But Matheson says since the budget was passed three months late, public sector employees in domestic partnerships now have to scramble in order to secure shared health care benefits.
“It’s not a lot of time to get all your ducks in a row to maintain the benefits,” says Matheson, who works for Madison’s streets division. “And there’s no way that every couple in a domestic partnership [that works in the public sector] is going to be able to get married before Jan. 1, if ever.”
The governor’s office did not respond to Isthmus’ request for comment. Tom Evenson, spokesperson for Walker, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in March that domestic partner benefits are now unnecessary because the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-gender marriage nationwide in 2015.
In 2009, Gov. Jim Doyle created Wisconsin’s domestic partnership registry for same-gender couples in his budget in response to the state’s 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-gender marriage. Doyle also extended health care and other benefits to domestic partners for state and local government workers that year.
Julaine Appling, president of Wisconsin Family Action, applauds lawmakers for curtailing domestic partnership rights. Wisconsin Family Action championed the 2006 same-gender marriage ban and has been fighting the expansion of benefits to domestic partners.
“Any time the government sanctions non-marriage relationships, they are undermining the institution of marriage at taxpayer expense. When you undermine marriage, you are setting the state up for problems, economically and otherwise,” Appling says. “Whether it’s a heterosexual or homosexual couple, they have a way to get these benefits. It’s called marriage.”
This summer Democrats fought to preserve the law before the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) argued that even though the state now has marriage equality, providing domestic partner benefits is still an important tool for recruiting and retaining workers.
“If we’re going to recruit the best and the brightest — and you look at which states and which institutions are providing these benefits — going in the opposite direction would set us back further,” Hintz told the Joint Finance Committee on June 15. “I think we should think about the unintended consequences of not maintaining something like this.”
The city of Madison intends to reimburse health care costs for city workers in domestic partnerships. In his proposed 2018 budget, Mayor Paul Soglin allocated $250,000 to revert back to the policy that was in place before the state created domestic partnership benefits. The mayor says some employee contracts include provisions for health care coverage for domestic partners.
“We have an obligation to do this so we will,” Soglin says. “Why did the state do this? The Legislature and the governor just wanted to poke everybody in the eye with a sharp stick. That’s nothing new.”
Austin and Matheson say they haven’t heard anything official from the city yet (the city budget isn’t scheduled to be passed until November). So they plan on getting married at a small ceremony at the Capitol in a few weeks.
“We aren’t going to take any chances,” Matheson says. “At this point, it’s not like we don’t want to get married. We’re partners and have been in a committed relationship for two decades. I’m just sick of Walker playing all these games with people’s lives.”
