How Marriage Equality will Help the Economy
Thursday, February 24, 2011
On Wednesday, February 9th, I joined hundreds of people at the Rhode Island state house to testify before the House committee discussing bills on marriage equality. There were many people from both sides of the issue imploring the representatives to vote using their opinion as the deciding factor. It was gratifying to see democracy in action. The diversity of the state, at times, does come through. Equal rights is a cause to which I have devoted many years and I felt it necessary to be heard on this equal rights issue. While I believe wholeheartedly that the issue of marriage equality is a matter of equal rights, my role as a business executive also forces me to also focus on the economic effects to a state that does not allow same-sex marriage.
None of us needs to be reminded of the reality of the economy in Rhode Island. High unemployment and lack of new business to our state has weighed heavily on us over the last two or three years. Our population growth has been stagnant for a decade and thinking outside the box as a business owner is an everyday occurrence. Rhode Island has a dubious reputation of losing talented workers. I see it every day in my business. So long as RI continues to exclude same-sex couples from marriage, we will continue to lose talented workers to the surrounding states, where their families will be more protected and more secure.
States that have marriage equality have seen an increase of talented professionals moving there. In a February 29, 2008 issue of Boston Business Journal in an article entitled “Gay marriage attracts out of state workforce,” Henry Hoey, a council member of the Greater Boston Business Council, which is a Chamber of Commerce of gay business professionals, is quoted in the article as saying “Since the marriage law was passed, we see a lot more (gay) professionals moving into the Boston area.” At that point in time the organization’s membership had increased 5% in one year to 1,100 members. This is the kind of reputation we want to have in Rhode Island. I share an interest with the state in increasing tax revenue from the sale of homes and from increased tax revenue from profitable businesses.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThere are many economic contributions derived from home sales. For each $100,000 sale of homes, there is over $28,000 generated for the economy. Here's a calculation by the National Association of Realtors showing the amount added to the economy for each house sold.
■ First, home construction, real estate brokerage, mortgage lending, Title insurance, rental and leasing, home appraisal, moving truck service and other related activities amounts to $21,604 per home.
■ Second, there is greater spending in restaurants, sports games and charity events. The size of this multiplier effect is estimated to be $12,549.
■ Third, an additional expenditure on consumer items such as furniture, appliances and paint services is $4,541.
■ And lastly, typically one new home is constructed for every 8 existing home sales. Therefore, for each existing home sale, 1/8 of new home value is added to the economy and is estimated in the state to be $30,006. The total is $68,700 based on the average price of a home sold in Rhode Island.
If marriage equality were legalized in RI, more same-sex couples would buy homes here because they would be afforded the same benefits and rights of survivorship of home ownership as straight couples. If gay couples added 5% to the $1.85 billion of home sales last year, that would have contributed an additional $25.9 million to the economy.
There are innumerable economic benefits that would come to our state besides increased home ownership. We have been talking about economic development for years. We have some of the finest colleges and universities in the world right here in our state and the idea of making our state a hub for the bio-tech industry is so close to a reality that many of us who have been working on this prospect are finally feeling like it could become a reality. We will have job opportunities for the best and the brightest innovators and scientists in the world. If you think that the entire future workforce is heterosexual, you are wrong. Do we want to risk losing some of the best and the brightest to other states, like Massachusetts, where their loving relationships will be valued and treated equally? I hope not.
Anyone who has gone to or paid for a wedding recently knows how much it costs. What florist, caterer, wedding venue, hotel, car rental business, retailer or restaurant wouldn’t love to have more business? We are the Ocean State. We take a huge amount of pride in the magnificence of our rich architectural history, our parks, our waterfront, the arts and culture that we all enjoy. Why wouldn’t we want to gain monetary benefit from including all loving couples to spend their wedding dollars in our state and not over our borders?
When I let my company of 180 people know that I was going to speak at the committee hearing, I got back a hundred responses praising me for speaking out in favor of marriage equality and civil rights. Seven of them shared stories of their children that had married their partners in Massachusetts and would not move back to RI because they were not recognized and afforded the same rights as their heterosexual friends. Let me repeat that: they would not move back to RI.
Roger Williams left Massachusetts in 1636 to found the settlement known as Providence because he was opposed to Native Americans not being paid for their land and for the right of religious freedom. We have an obligation to live up to the ideals that preceded our stewardship of this wonderful state. Fairness and equality for everyone should be the basis from which we make our decisions. I urge all to support the vote in favor of marriage equality and make all of us proud to be Rhode Islanders.
Sally Lapides is the founder and President of Residential Properties Ltd., the largest independent real estate company in Rhode Island. She is heterosexual and is afforded the rights she supports in this article.
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