Senate Republicans on Wednesday flexed their political muscle, killing a bill intended to clarify problems created by the legalization of civil unions in 2013 and the unexpected allowance of gay marriage a year later.
A GOP-controlled committee voted 3-2 against a measure that Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman said was designed to stem “legal chaos” in case couples decide to divorce or one partner dies.
Among the problems Steadman sees: A couple that first obtained a civil union then got married probably would have to file separate paperwork and separate fees to dissolve their relationship.
“It feels like an unfair tax on divorcing gay couples,” Steadman said, adding that his bill would have melded the two so only one dissolution was required.
“These are real problems that I feel a personal responsibility as the sponsor of the civil unions act to try to fix,” said Steadman, a gay lawmaker who led the three-year battle to allow gay couples to form civil unions.
Steadman said he believes problems created by the current situation are unconstitutional and ripe for a costly legal challenge taxpayers will have to pay for — arguments that didn’t sway the three Republicans sitting on the State Affairs Committee. Sens. Ray Scott of Grand Junction, Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling and Owen Hill of Colorado Springs voted to kill Senate Bill 16.
This year marks the first time in a decade Republicans have controlled the Senate.
Afterward, Sonnenberg said the legislature should wait for the U.S. Supreme Court, which last week decided to take up the issue of gay marriage.
But Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, was stunned when told what happened in the Senate committee, saying it made no sense not to clarify existing law no matter how a lawmaker feels about civil unions.
James Bailey, a family law attorney, testified in favor of the bill, saying the situation is filled with ambiguities that “people like me are going to jump on.”
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327, lbartels@denverpost.com or twitter.com/lynn_bartels
