Sunday, November 4, 2007, 12:58pm
Rhode Island's General Assembly has overridden the veto of legislation providing the domestic partners of public employees with the same pension and retirement benefits as spouses.
It was one of nearly three-dozen vetoes lawmakers overturned in a one-day special session.
When he rejected the domestic partner bill Gov. Don Carcieri said the public did not want "unwarranted and unnecessary expansions of state employee benefits."
The legislation includes all employees with pensions managed through the Employee Retirement System of RI – teachers, judges, and other state and municipal employees.
To qualify, partners must have lived together for one year and be financially interdependent.