Partner Benefits: University of Georgia President Michael Adams says he supports offering benefits to the domestic partners of unmarried UGA employees.

By next summer, faculty and staff should be able to share "soft" benefits like dental and life insurance with their partners. Those are paid for entirely by employees. But Adams had to ask University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby whether UGA is allowed to provide taxpayer-subsidized health insurance to domestic partners.

Health insurance for domestic partners will cost an estimated $270,000, based on the cost of the plan and the number of people who've signed up at other institutions. (Even the University of Florida does it. Florida, people.) Sure, it's not the kind of thing you'd find under a couch cushion, but UGA and the regents can find a little spare change in their multi-billion-dollar budget.

Remember, though, that critics of Athens-Clarke County's domestic partner policy predicted that it would bankrupt the local government in 2008, some even insinuating that taxpayers would be forced to foot costly bills for gay AIDS patients' drugs. It didn't happen, of course, but similar arguments could be made this time around. I just can't shake the feeling that this might get ugly. These types of moral/cultural issues have a tendency to.

Of course, it's really only a moral issue in the sense of fairness to unmarried workers. And it's an economic development issue because it will help to recruit top faculty, improving the quality of a UGA education.

But remember, too, that anti-abortion forces in the legislature are constantly trying to ban stem cell research, even though such a law would drive jobs out-of-state without saving a single fetus. Gov. Nathan Deal won his primary two years ago in part by gay-baiting, criticizing then-frontrunner Karen Handel for merely appearing at an Atlanta gay pride parade while she was Fulton County Commission chairwoman. Until last year, the Board of Regents allowed undocumented immigrants—another group that's often targeted for political purposes—to attend UGA at no cost to taxpayers (they paid out-of-state tuition) but barred them after powerful lawmakers threatened to step in.

As the politically savvy Adams pointed out when the faculty and staff on the University Council recommended domestic partner benefits in October, it's different when the state's flagship university does something. What might have passed unnoticed at, say, Kennesaw State, might raise an outcry among the Bulldog Nation. Adams says he expects a response from Huckaby "in the not-too-distant future." So, we'll see.

Taxby's in Town: If you see an inordinate number of old men in ill-fitting suits wandering around town next week, don't be alarmed. They're just our state legislators.

Sunday kicks off the University of Georgia's Biennial Institute, an every-two-years training ground for newly elected lawmakers (including our own Regina Quick and Spencer Frye) that also serves as a preview of issues the General Assembly will be tackling in 2013 and 2014. Super happy fun time, right?

Sen. Saxby Chambliss won't be so pretty when the tea party gets through with him.

This year's three-day conference includes panel discussions on the state's economic outlook, job creation initiatives, environmental issues, juvenile justice reform, education and transportation. House Speaker David Ralston will speechify on Monday, Dec. 10, and Gov. Nathan Deal will speak Tuesday, Dec. 11. Either one is apt to break news, but what political junkies really want to see is Sen. Saxby Chambliss' keynote address on Sunday, Dec. 9.

You see, Chambliss recently made some vague noises about closing some tax loopholes or something to raise revenue to bring down our national debt. This, in spite of signing in blood a sacred vow to Grover Norquist 20 years ago promising never to support raising taxes. To the tea party, it's the worst thing to happen since the Kenyan usurper cheated his way to re-election. (We kid.) A clown car full of potential candidates—former Handel, the redundantly-named pundit Erick Erickson, Rep. Tom Price of Roswell and our very own Rep. Paul Broun—have reportedly considered taking on the apostate Chambliss in the 2014 primary. And so, it will be very, very interesting to see whether Chambliss backpedals and how a room full of mostly Republican fellow politicians reacts to his speech if he sticks to his guns.

Lost amid all of the freaking out is the fact that Chambliss is correct. Remember, we had a balanced budget until the Bush tax cuts. Now, even if we cut all discretionary non-defense spending—highways, food safety inspections, the EPA, education grants, air traffic controllers, all that stuff—we would still be spending more than we took in. Even as we head for the "fiscal cliff" Thelma & Louise style, it's political suicide for Republicans to admit it, though.