Topeka ? Although state employees who are married to someone of the same sex cannot yet put their spouses on their health insurance policies, employees of local governments in the Lawrence area have been able to do that for years.

That’s because the city of Lawrence, Douglas County and the Lawrence school district all offer family benefits to employees, their spouses and “domestic partners,” regardless of their gender or whether the couple is even legally married.

That’s how local governments got around the Kansas constitutional amendment, adopted in 2005, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman only, and says: “No relationship, other than a marriage, shall be recognized by the state as entitling the parties to the rights or incidents of marriage.”

Sarah Plinsky, assistant county administrator for Douglas County, said that by offering benefits to domestic partners, regardless of whether the couple was legally married, meant that offering family health coverage and other benefits was not a right or incident of marriage.

But she said the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide will make those benefits policies easier to administer and less costly for the families.

“We had to work through a very complicated taxing issue because it was taxable income to spouses,” Plinsky said. “It required a lot more work because it’s a noncash benefit received by spouses. The decision makes our life easier. Plus, there was a tax impact for the employee’s spouse. But now they will not have a tax impact.”

After the constitutional amendment was adopted in 2005, the city of Lawrence became the first local government in Kansas to look for a way around it by establishing a “domestic partner registry.”

That proved important for many people working in the private sector whose employers required some form of legal recognition of a relationship before they would extend family health benefits.

Lawrence Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard said since that registry was established in 2007, 74 couples had been registered, and 10 have since asked to be removed from the registry.

Stoddard said the city began covering domestic partners and same-sex married couples under its group health plan in January 2014. It also extended benefits under the Family Medical Leave Act at the same time.

David Cunningham, human resources director for the Lawrence school district, said the district has accepted “affidavits of domestic partnership” and provided health and leave benefits — including maternity, paternity and bereavement leave — to same-sex couples for at least 10 years.

He said the district’s master agreement with the Lawrence teachers union defines the word “spouse” to include domestic partners.