Boosting City Revenue Through Marriage Equality

So, New York City wants to bring more money in to the economy through marriage licenses. The Bloomberg administration has created a “24,000 square foot wedding palace”hoping to attract couples to get hitched at a new marriage bureau location on Worth Street.

 

This is a terrific idea, except there’s something missing, specifically all the revenue that the city could be seeing if marriage equality existed in New York.

If the administration is serious about increasing marriage licenses and building city revenue, then we need to get serious about marriage equality in our state and city. According to a study conducted by the Comptroller’s office, “allowing gays to marry would boost that city's economy by $142 million in the three years following legalization.”  

 

If that’s not enough, a recent Congressional study [pdf] found that if all 50 states and the federal government extended the rights and obligations of marriage to same-sex couples, gay weddings would generate almost $1 billion in revenue each year.

New York needs to get with the times. As they say, "gay marriage will save the economy"... 

 

Comments

[mdh]

Although I personally am not gay I am all FOR allowing gay marriage. There are quire a few reasons I feel this way but I do not believe that such a change should be made for financial reasons. It is downright demeaning to say that the city should extend marriage rights to same-sex couples because doing so would "boost the economy" or "bring in revenue." That's like saying women should have a right to choose because the state could tax abortions and that would surely bring in some extra revenue, or like someone living in the South in the late 1950s saying that schools should be desegregated because then a city could collect school taxes from African Americans.

Betsy Gotbaum -- Shame on you! While I support the city embracing same-sex marriage, I just hope it comes about for the RIGHT reasons and not the WRONG ones.

[uwskeepsitgully]

mdh, i am with you--there should be no division among gays and straights. a gay person is a person, and is entitled to all rights others enjoy. but the thing is, betsy gotbaum feels the same way. i believe she has an extensive history of supporting gay rights, including gay marriage, for all of the humane, normal reasons.

i read this post as something a little lighter in tone. (check that video link, for instance.) i read it as something meant to say, in effect, that even if the legitimate reasons for gay marriage weren't enough (though they should be), the economic cost of bigotry is something lost on the opponents of gay marriage.

so cut bg some slack. she's with us.