Fiscal Boon Predicted if 1913 Law Repealed Study:Expect Revenues of $111 Million, 330 New Jobs in First Three Years
New England Blade
By Zachary Violette
July 16, 2008
Massachusetts will reap nearly $111 million in economic benefits over the
next three years should legislators repeal a 1913 law that prohibits
out-of-state gay couples from getting married in Massachusetts [See Senate Votes
to Repeal 1913 Law], while some 330 jobs in the travel and tourism industry will
also be created, according to a study by the Charles R. Williams Institute on
Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at UCLA conducted for the Executive
Office of Housing and Economic Development and released on June 30. Based on the
number of gay couples in Massachusetts who have gotten married since the 2004
Goodridge decision made it legal to do so, as well as the number of couples who
have already tied the knot in California as well as those couples who have
announced plans to travel there since it has no such ban on out-of-state gay
couples getting married, more than 32,000 couples will come to Massachusetts to
get married, with each expected to spend an average of $3,962, or just 10
percent of the typical cost of an American wedding.
So that $111 million dollars in revenue? It might just be the beginning. "Our
analysis suggests that allowing non-resident same-sex couples to marry by August
1, 2008 would increase Massachusetts state and local revenues by over $5.1
million over a three-year period, or $1.75 million per year," says M.V. Lee
Badgett and R. Bradley Sears, study co-authors. Of that amount, they explain, $4
million would come from sales and occupancy taxes and $1.1 million would come
from marriage license fees.
During the Senate debate on Tuesday, July 15, Sen. Dianne Wilkerson,
(D-Boston), alluded to the financial windfall expected in the commonwealth
should the repeal be passed, but said that it was not the main reason that
legislators should undo a law she calls "evil." According to the study, opening
up the Massachusetts borders to same-sex marriage would appeal most to gay
couples in New York, where Gov. David Patterson is pushing for the legal
recognition in New York of same-sex couples married elsewhere.
"The full faith and credit clause of our Constitution — that's our federal
Constitution — [which] guarantees that states will observe the rights granted to
people by other states. The one way a state doesn't have to respect those rights
is if it passes specific laws," Patterson told the New York Blade last month.
"So for instance, if a state allows for bigamy, we have a clause specifically
banning bigamy. Well, with same sex marriage, there is no ban [in New York
State] on same sex marriage. There's never even been a vote taken on it in the
Legislature. Therefore the full faith and credit clause applies."
So, says the study, with that directive in mind, nearly half of the 48,761
New York gay couples might be compelled to get married. While about five percent
of these couples may opt to get married in California or Canada, because of New
York's proximity to Massachusetts, 95 percent (or, 23,161 couples) would opt to
get married in Massachusetts. The study also predicts that one-quarter of
couples in states that recognize civil unions and are adjacent to Massachusetts
(New Hampshire, Connecticut and New Jersey) would come to Massachusetts to get
married, though Anne Stanback, executive director of Love Makes a Family says
that couples in Connecticut may opt to wait for its state Supreme Court to rule
in a case seeking to make legal same-sex marriages.
"For Connecticut residents, I think there won't be a rush to Massachusetts.
We expect our Supreme Court could rule any day, and if we lose in court, we will
be back in the legislature next session," she told the New England Blade on
Wednesday. "My prediction is that we will have marriage in Connecticut in a
year's time, and since a Massachusetts marriage will not be recognized in
Connecticut, I think many couples will wait until they can get married here."
