Civil Unions to Cost Del. $400K

Should Delaware legalize civil unions, the costs to the state will be about $400,000 a year, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Williams Institute estimates civil unions will cost the state about $93,000 in the first year, $460,000 in the second year, and $630,500 in the third, mainly because of losses in taxes and increases in state employee benefits. Those costs would be nominally offset by a decrease in public assistance and an increases in license fees and tourism. About 750 same-sex couples would form civil unions in the first three years of their existence, according to the think tank.

Legislation was introduced Tuesday in Delaware's senate that could lead to the establishment of civil unions in America's first state.

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