PA House sees first marriage bill
Pennsylvania Rep. Babette Josephs (D-182nd Dist.) submitted a marriage-equality bill, HB 1835, to the House earlier this month.
Cosponsors are Reps. Tim Briggs (D-149th Dist.), Vanessa Lowery Brown (D-190th Dist.), Mark Cohen (D-202nd Dist.), Dan Frankel (D-23rd Dist.), Michael McGeehan (D-173rd Dist.), Michael O’Brien (D-175th Dist.) and Steven Santarsiero (D-31st Dist.).
State Sen. Daylin Leach introduced the state legislature’s first marriage-equality bill in 2009 and resubmitted the measure earlier this session.
The Senate bill has three cosponsors and is currently in the Judiciary Committee.
“Marriage is marriage,” Josephs said of her motivation for spearheading the House bill. “Marriage is a good thing, and everyone who is in love should not be denied the ability to marry the person they choose.”
In addition to the moral reasons for supporting same-sex marriage, Josephs said marriage equality makes practical sense for Pennsylvania.
“There is an economic and social dimension to this,” the representative said, noting that Pennsylvania should take a cue from New York, which legalized same-sex marriage this summer. “In New York, they think that in the next three years they’re going to see their economy grow by almost $400 million based on the fact that same-sex couples will be coming into the state for marriage certificates and celebrations and starting businesses there or living there. The state has now risen head and shoulders above those around it, like Pennsylvania, and if there’s a choice for same-sex couples of where to go to recreate, to study, to do business, to live, why would they pick Pennsylvania over New York considering New York has taken a bold step forward for basic fairness and equality?”
Josephs also introduced another measure this month, HB 1828, that would eliminate a tax penalty that same-sex couples face because of their inability to legally marry.
Currently, if one member of a same-sex couple dies, his or her partner must pay a 15-percent tax on any inheritance, while married heterosexual couples are exempt.
Josephs’ measure would extend that exemption to committed same-sex and opposite-sex couples who can prove interdependence through evidence such as a joint mortgage or lease or if a partner is listed as the primary beneficiary of the other’s life-insurance policy.
“We need to eliminate that tax,” Josephs said. “We don’t allow same-sex couples to marry and then, because we constrain them in this unfair and unjust way, we then say you also have to pay a tax. That’s extremely unfair.”
Philadelphia resident David Jacobs said he and his partner spoke with Josephs this summer about the inheritance-tax issue, which they learned about after Jacobs’ partner faced a health scare.
“We began to re-examine our wills and that’s when I found out from my attorney that even though we have co-owned our house for eight years and been together for 16, if one of us was to die, the other would have to pay this tax — not just on the house but on any property, any bank accounts,” Jacobs said.
While married couples are exempt from the tax, state law requires “lineal heirs,” such as children or grandchildren and their spouses, to pay a 4.5-percent tax and siblings a 12-percent tax, while the 15-percent tax is applied to “collateral heirs,” including nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles or friends.
“I understand the importance of taxes but for our married next-door neighbors to not have to pay this and we do just isn’t right,” Jacobs said. “It could be such a burden when someone passes away. That could come to thousands and thousands of dollars and someone may have to sell their house because their partner died, and that’s on top of dealing with the grief. That’s money that could be invested in the home to keep up property values, or in the local community and businesses instead of being taken by Harrisburg.”
Josephs has not yet had any discussions with Senate leaders about a possible companion bill.
Cosponsoring the inheritance-tax bill are Reps. Michelle Brownlee (D-195th Dist.), Mark Cohen (D-202nd Dist.), Dom Costa (D-21st Dist.), Maria Donatucci (D-185th Dist.), Dan Frankel (D-23rd Dist.), Robert Freeman (D-136th Dist.), Patrick Harkins (D-1st Dist.), Michael McGeehan (D-173rd Dist.), Michael O’Brien (D-175th Dist.), Chelsa Wagner (D-22nd Dist.) and Rosita Youngblood (D-198th Dist.).
Both chambers of the state legislature are currently held by Republicans and, while Josephs acknowledged the bills will face an uphill battle, she noted it’s still important for the topics to be addressed by state lawmakers.
“They’re out there now and that means they’re going to be discussed,” she said. “And that means there is always the potential they will move forward.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].