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Retirement Fund weighs-in on same-sex issue

by Heather Hauswirth

The board of trustees for the Government of Guam Retirement Fund is the latest to weigh in on the controversial Domestic Partnership Bill.  The members believe there will be too many financial strains associated with the passage of such legislation.

While the retirement board maintains it does not hold a position on Bill 185 as a measure with regards to the underlying social issues related to same-sex civil unions, domestic partnerships or designated beneficiary agreements, the board members are clearly concerned about the economic and financial impacts they say the bill will have on the Retirement Fund if same-sex couples can cash in on retiree benefits for married couples.

Joe T. San Agustin, the Retirement Fund board chairman, said, "It is prudent on the Legislature to consider what the impacts going to be. Maybe there are a lot of social benefits; maybe their civil rights might be attended to. But like everything else, there are no more free lunches. And I think this is something we have the responsibility to bring to their attention. What they do with it, that's their business. But if they do something about it, they got to be willing to come up with the cash."

But Vice-Speaker B.J. Cruz, the author of Bill 185, believes the board's estimation is arbitrary.  The Retirement Fund estimates a 65 percent marriage probability when it determines overall funding for the Retirement Fund's Defined Benefit Plan.  "In the Retirement Fund there is no difference, all the employees make the same contribution, the government makes the same contribution for each one of them. The problem is not the bill, the problem is the Retirement Fund in their actuarial. They claim they figure only 65 percent of people are married, that is not my problem," he said.

The board passed a resolution saying that if bill 185, 138 or 212 are passed into law, the Fund will be required to pay spousal annuities that have not been accounted for or funded.  But the vice-speaker isn't buying it, saying, "You all pay the same amount of money to the Retirement Fund. Your deduction is the same as the person next to you, that the fact that you are single, is the same amount as the person next to you who is getting paid the same amount of money as someone married with five children."

Even after making changes to his original Bill 185 that most recently include changing the term "domestic partnership" to "civil partnership", defining marriage as "a relationship between a man and a woman" and stressing that no religious entity is required to solemnize a civil partnership are among the proposed amendments.  

With this latest resolution, it's apparent the vice-speaker is left fighting yet another uphill battle until his controversial bill hits session floor possibly next month.