New York City Made $190,000 Off of Gay Marriages Last Year

Yet again, we're shown that gay marriage is one of those topics on which social and fiscal conservatives don't quite align.

Yet again, we're shown that gay marriage is one of those topics on which social and fiscal conservatives don't quite align. According to a New York Post analysis, the City of New York's Marriage Bureau made in additional $190,000 in 2011 with the statewide legalization of gay marriage, effective at the end of July. The Post came to that conclusion like this: from August to December of last year, the bureau raked in $2.26 million in revenue, while during the same period in 2010 it made only $2.07 million. Now that $190,000 difference could have been influenced by other factors, like say, that more heterosexual couples getting married, a possibility since the city's population did grow slightly. But a good sign that it's mostly due to same-sex marriage is that in August 2011 the number of marriages in the city jumped by a quarter. (For all its rightwardness, The Post is fascinated with calculating gay-marriage stats.)

Just how good was this marriage bump for New York's cash-strapped government? Not very, since New York City plans to spend something like $68.7 billion in 2012. But another couple hundred grand is nothing to sneeze at!  Besides, marriage-license fees in New York ($40 a pop) are only a part of the positive economic impact of gay marriage. Back in 2009, New York's comptroller estimated a $210 million boost if gay marriage passed. Gay or not, weddings are expensive. Not that New York needed an economic argument to justify gay marriage when the moral one was so convincing.