Same-Sex Marriage a Way to Get More Money into State Budget

GayRVA Staff
GayRVA Staff
August 25, 2011

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According to a study by UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute that examined the financial benefits to Rhode Island’s economy of legalizing gay marriage. The same is proposed as a way to get Virginia’s state budget up.

From Out of the Storm News:

The study [in Rhode Island] estimated $358,308 would go to the state the first year of legalized gay marriage, $416,735 the next year, and $420,815 three years after same sex marriage were legalized.

Of Rhode Island’s 2,097 same-sex couples, the study’s authors estimated that 1,048 couples would marry within the first three years after same sex marriage were legalized. Income tax takings would rise, as these couples began filing taxes jointly. Sales tax revenues would rise, as a result of spending on weddings. State spending on means-tested public benefits programs would go down. And marriage license fees for same sex couples would bring in some more money.

[M. V. Lee] Badgett tells OOTS that Virginia could increase its coffers by legalizing same sex marriage as well – perhaps by even more than Rhode Island could expect, since Virginia is home to 12,639 same sex couples. “Virginia is a bigger state,” says Badgett.

Read more here.