Cambridge to offset federal gay marriage tax for city employees

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 (HRC), a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.

“To the best of my knowledge, yes [Cambridge is the first]” said Warbelow, who is the state legislative director for the HRC. “Nobody else is doing this at this point.”

The federal tax costs same-sex married families as much as $1,500 to $3,000 a year that couples of the opposite sex do not have to pay, officials said.

“Having marriage equality yet an unequal tax burden keeps [gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender] married couples on the margins, and marginalization in a lot of ways is seen as a level of discrimination,” said City Councilor Denise Simmons who is gay and was mayor of Cambridge from 2008-2009.

Simmons co-sponsored an order in January asking City Manager Robert Healy to propose a plan to for Cambridge to carry the burden of the “discriminatory taxation” on the same-sex married couples. In a recent interview, she said the stipend program the city ultimately included in its budget for the upcoming fiscal year does not carry an egregious cost, but will make a difference in the lives of employees.

“It’s a wonderful way to say that you value your workforce,” said Jeff Walker, a member of the city’s Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender Commission (GLBT). “It seemed like an important thing to do.”