Same Sex Marriage – An Economic Windfall for California
Much hoopla or protestation, depending upon your political persuasion, surrounded Monday’s 5:01 p.m. marriage ceremonies in Beverly Hills and San Francisco. Tuesday, papers nationwide covered the ceremonies and foretold the flood of same-sex couples flocking to county registrar offices throughout California to obtain marriage licenses.
While these daily newspapers focused on the strife between proponents and opponents of gay marriage, more attention should be paid to the economic benefit that gay marriage will bring to a deeply indebted California – and what this means for our state’s future.
A June 11, 2008, US News & World Report article on the subject offered a brief analysis of the situation when its author wrote, “Almost as soon as the state Supreme Court declared a state law banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional last month, analysts saw the potential for an economic boomlet.”
Thankfully, someone had the foresight to study this situation and offer an economic analysis. According to a report co-authored by Brad Spears, J.D., and M.V. Lee Badgett, Ph.D., “allowing same-sex couples to marry will result in approximately $63.8 million in revenue over the next three years.” This figure is staggering given that California faces a $15 to $17 billion budget deficit this year alone.
Back to the Future to Solve Budget Delays?
Perhaps, the way to fix future budget delays is to go Back to the Future. The character Marty McFly in the movie by that same name went back in time to re-adjust happenings in the past that would make life better in the future.
Since no time machine has been invented yet to change the past, maybe we should simply borrow an idea from years ago that could help with passing budgets in the future.
From 1933 to 1962, a simple majority vote to approve the state budget was required if the yearly budget increase were 5% or less. If the yearly increase was more than 5%, a two-thirds vote was required. Bringing that provision back may solve many a budget impasse and at the same time provide a reasonable spending cap.
Semantics may factor into proposed tax increase
This past week, Senate Democrats called for a $11.5 billion dollar tax increase to help balance the budget. The Republican legislative delegation will hold strong against any new taxes or tax increases. Every Republican member, save one, has publicly taken the "No New Taxes Pledge;" it would be political suicide for a Republican member to break their promise on taxes.
However, taxpayers should be very afraid of the inevitable game of tax semantics, especially over a sales tax on services. The pro-tax lobby is already trying to frame the issue as "tax fairness" and "modernizing the tax code." A wide application of the sales tax to services could mean up to $45 billion in new taxes! That huge number gives the pro-tax lobby a wide variety of services to tax.