Citizens of Cambridge, Massachusetts will be taxed to make payments to same-sex 'married' employees to offset, what local officials consider to be, a federal tax code that discriminates against homosexuals.
UPDATE 7/10/11: City payments to homosexuals begin
-- From "Cambridge to give stipend to same-sex employees" by The Associated Press 6/9/11
The city beginning in July will pay quarterly stipends to city employees in a same-sex marriage who must pay federal taxes on the value of the health benefits their spouse receives from the city.
Federal law requires employers to calculate the value of the benefits received by a same-sex spouse as taxable income to the employee, while health benefits of an opposite-sex spouse are not taxable.
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From "Same-sex stipend may be a first in the US" by Brock Parker, Boston Globe Correspondent 6/9/11
While a number of private employers, such as Google, already offer an additional stipend or payment to same-sex married employees to defray the cost of the federal tax, Cambridge is believed to be the first municipality in the nation to do so, said Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign, a national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil-rights organization.
The city, which in 2004 was the first in the nation to offer same-sex marriage licenses, currently provides health insurance benefits to the spouses of 22 city and school department employees who are married to a partner of the same sex, said city personnel director Michael Gardner. The stipend will cost the city an estimated $33,000 per year once it is fully implemented.
The federal tax costs same-sex married families as much as $1,500 to $3,000 a year that those of the opposite sex do not have to pay, officials said.
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Also read White House Torpedoed Marriage from Start
