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Marietta, Georgia, extends pension benefits to married same-sex couples

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Marietta, Georgia, extends pension benefits to married same-sex couples

The city of Marietta, Georgia, has extended spousal benefits under its pension plan to legally wed same-sex couples.

City council members voted 6-1 in favor of an amendment to Marietta’s personnel rules and regulations allowing legal spouses of gay and lesbian city employees to receive annuity payments and other survivor benefits under the city’s defined benefit pension plan.

Prior to the council’s vote on Wednesday, Mayor Steve Tumlin said the amendment was primarily intended to bring the city’s pension plan into compliance with Internal Revenue Service regulations revised in 2013 to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s invalidation of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act.

“If we don’t vote for this, we might as well do away with our pension plan,” Mr. Tumlin said during the council’s brief discussion of the plan amendment, noting that continuing to deny spousal retirement benefits to legally married same-sex couples would be a breach of the city’s fiduciary obligations under ERISA, as well as jeopardize the city’s pension insurance protection through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

Mr. Tumlin gave his explanation of the city’s position in response to comments made earlier in the meeting by Rev. Anthony Coleman, the lone council member to vote in opposition of the amendment. Mr. Coleman said his religious beliefs prohibited him from supporting the change to the city’s pension plan, irrespective of the federal requirement to do so.

“I will never compromise my belief, regardless of what other towns, cities and governments may mandate,” Mr. Coleman said.

“We have to change it,” Mr. Tumlin said in response to Mr. Coleman’s comments. “Occasionally our Bill of Rights and our 5th Amendment to the Constitution do trump certain religious beliefs, and that’s what’s happened here.”

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