Councilor Decker interviewed on MSNBC

Councilor Decker was interviewed Monday, July 11th, on the national news network, MSNBC, regarding Cambridge's decision to give married same-sex couples a stipend to offset unfair taxes from the federal government.

Cambridge may be the first local government to equalize the cost of health benefits for its gay employees. Unlike married couples, employees who use domestic partner health coverage for their partners are required to pay taxes on the value of the health plan. If the federal government recognized same-sex marriage, these couples could avoid the tax since it doesn't apply to heterosexual married people. On top of that, employees can't use pretax dollars to pay for their partner's insurance premiums - another bonus that's available only to opposite-sex married couples. So after Cambridge officials were made aware of the issue through a city employee who had to pay the extra taxes, they decided to reimburse employees for the extra costs. The policy will go into effect on July 1 for nonunion employees; it will go into effect for union employees "pending collective bargaining obligations."