A Financial Upside to Gay Marriage?

A Financial Upside to Gay Marriage?

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that if same-sex marriages were legalized in all 50 states and recognized by the federal government, the federal budget would gain almost $1 billion a year in new revenue.

Based on the responses to Census 2000, CBO estimated that nearly 600,000 same-sex couples nationwide would get married if they had the opportunity, and that those 600,000 newly married couples would pay up to an additional $700 million a year, mainly in income and estate taxes.

Currently, and as long as the Defense of Marriage Act remains in effect, the federal government does not recognize marriages of same-sex couples either for receipt of federal benefits or for tax purposes. Under the law, the federal government honors only marriages between one man and one woman.

CBO notes that considering the total national debt, the impact of $700 million a year "would be small," and that its estimate of the number of same-sex marriages is "highly uncertain."

In almost-broke California, where voters just overrode the state’s supreme court by re-outlawing same-sex marriage, a University of California study estimated that gay weddings would generate $64 million in additional state tax revenue and create some 2,200 new jobs


See detailed report at this link http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/PDF/SameSexMarriage.pdf