146th
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
FISCAL
NOTE
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DESCRIPTION: AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO
CIVIL UNIONS.
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ASSUMPTIONS:
1. Effective January 1, 2012.
2. The Act creates a legal relationship of civil
union for same sex couples in Delaware.
3. The fiscal note reflects an estimate of the
cost of direct state employee benefits from the addition of partners and/or
partners and children of partners to the group health plan.
4. An analysis by UCLA’s Williams Institute
attempting to estimate the impact on Delaware from a law recognizing civil
unions including tax changes, tourism revenue, State employee benefits, public
assistance and license fees concluded as follows:
Year Number
of Civil Unions Net
State Cost
2 193 $459,796
3 152 $630,552
5. In order
to minimize the number of assumptions and variables, this fiscal note will be
confined to an estimation of the impact of recognizing civil unions on State
employee benefit costs. Further, the non-state benefit effects estimated by the
Williams Institute are small in comparison to the impact on state benefits.
6. The cost
estimates below are based on the assumption that offering same sex domestic
partner benefits (group health insurance) would increase claims cost by 0.3%
(low) to 0.6% (high). The estimates are
cumulative and all funds.
Cost: Low High
FY 2012 $115,000 to $225,000 (Partial Year)
FY 2013 $340,000 to $670,000
FY 2014 $420,000 to $840,000
Office of
Controller General (Amounts are shown in whole dollars)
March 28,
2011
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