NY DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP BENEFITS SEEN AS TAXING: From New York Newsday

The New York City Equal Benefits Law that took effect yesterday will be catastrophic for small businesses, according to some business experts and advocates.

That law requires contractors doing more than $100,000 of business a year with the city to extend to employees' domestic partners the same benefits they offer spouses. The City Council approved the law in May but Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who believes the law will hurt businesses, sued in State Supreme Court earlier this month to block it. But a judge denied the city's request to halt implementation while the litigation is pending. Bloomberg has said he won't enforce it while the suit is ongoing.

But the executive director of the Manhattan Office of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said the concerns are overblown.

"In other places where similar laws [have been enacted] there's been negligible impact," said Matt Foreman, who quit the city Commission on Human Rights last week because of Bloomberg's lawsuit. Some cities with similar laws include San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle, Foreman said.

What's more, Foreman said that employers' fears about having to insure gay men with HIV are an exaggeration. Sixty percent of people who who use domestic-partners benefits are heterosexual, he said.

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posted by Eve at 4:31 PM | link

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