Badgett sees economic benefits from relaxed same-sex marriage rules

The removal of the ban on marriage by same-sex couples from outside the state will shift the focus of debate from a hot-button social issue to more day-to-day matters, including how it will affect the state budget and economy, says Economics professor M.V. Lee Badgett.

The 1913 law that prevented Massachusetts from marrying out-of-state couples if their marriages were not legal in their home states was repealed July 31 after Gov. Deval Patrick signed the measure.

Badgett, who directs the center for Public Policy and Administration, says the state will receive $111 million over three years, more than $1 million in new marriage license fees, and see a few hundred jobs created in that same period from the marriage of out-of-state, same-sex couples.

Those conclusions were in a report Badgett co-authored for Daniel O’Connell, state secretary of housing and economic development, in June just as the debate over the marriage ban was heating up in the Legislature. Badgett and R. Bradley Sears of the Charles R. Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation, Law and Public Police at UCLA Law School wrote the report. Badgett also serves as research director for the Williams Institute.

“After four years of experience, Massachusetts policymakers and citizens have clearly gotten used to the ordinary reality of marriages by gay and lesbian couples,” Badgett says. “And this new economic boost from out-of-state couples couldn’t come at a better time, as increased foreclosures, skyrocketing energy costs and rising unemployment foreshadow tougher time ahead for our economy and the state budget.”

In the report to O’Connell, Badgett and Sears conclude that based on previous experience in other states and changing laws in places such as Vermont and California, they estimate 32,200 domestic same-sex couples would travel to Massachusetts to marry.

That influx of marriage-minded, same-sex couples would boost the Massachusetts economy by a total of $111 million over a three-year period, or by $37 million each year. Of that total, state and local revenues can be expected to increase $5.1 million over a three-year period, or by $1.75 million per year. About $4 million of this increase, or $1.3 million per year, would come from sales and occupancy tax revenues.

Another $1.1 million, or $.38 million per year, would come from marriage license fees, according to Badgett and Sears. And the new law would create and sustain approximately 330 new jobs in the state during the next three years, they say.

The report to O’Connell also includes a caveat that the figures they are using should be considered conservative because they only measure additional direct spending by the same-sex couples and do not take into account several other key elements. These include spending by wedding guests who are family and friends, the economic multiplier effect for tourism spending, and any other tax revenues besides sales and occupancy taxes.

August 1, 2008.

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