FIASCO COSTS (est)

We were wondering what kind of dollars were involved in Gavin Newsom's gay marriage fiasco, the third anniversary of which we are commemorating.

Pud came up with some sketchy numbers based on Chronicle reports.

We've assumed that all couples obtaining licenses also paid for a City Hall ceremony.

We think the estimates of costs for the original processing and ceremonies as well as for the processing of refunds are very low.

We have not included court costs. We believe that the costs of testing the law are an acceptable expenditure of SF tax dollars. However, this could have been done with one or two same sex couples as test cases.

Also, we have not included opportunity costs. The same dollars and energies could have been used in other ways that might have provided more benefit to the residents of San Francisco.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, author of the stunt, is the only clear beneficiary.

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