Kansas City Council will consider pensions for same-sex couples
The Kansas City Council on Thursday will consider expanding its pension plans to include municipal employees in same-sex marriages.
The council’s finance committee endorsed the measure Wednesday, with committee chair Jan Marcason saying it’s part of the council’s long-term philosophy of “inclusiveness” in its benefits. Human resources director Gary O’Bannon said the city has already provided some benefits to same-sex couples that state law allowed, but until now state law prohibited pension benefits for same-sex marriages.
In October, Jackson County Circuit Judge J. Dale Youngs declared that Missouri’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional for denying rights to couples legally married in other states. Republican leaders in the Missouri General Assembly then filed a motion to appeal Youngs’ ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Kansas City elected leaders did not want to fight Youngs’ order, and the city’s Law Department filed a motion last Friday opposing the General Assembly’s motion to intervene.
On Tuesday, Youngs said the legislators’ deadline to try to intervene in the case had already passed and he no longer has jurisdiction.
| Lynn Horsley, lhorsley@kcstar.com
This story was originally published December 10, 2014 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Kansas City Council will consider pensions for same-sex couples."