Efforts to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota are coming to a head this week.

A Senate Finance Committee will review the potential fiscal impact of a bill allowing same-sex couples to wed at a meeting Tuesday morning, May 7. A companion bill cleared the House Ways and Means Committee on a voice vote Monday night, May 6. Both are last stops before potential floor vote in each chamber.

But during the day Monday, supporters and opponents of the measure intensified pressure on lawmakers who have not publicly revealed how they will vote.

Supporters say they will have the 68 votes needed to pass the bill in the House but are staying mum on how close they are to that number.

“We will pass this bill,” said a confident Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, after the committee vote.

House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, has said he wouldn’t schedule a floor vote on the bill until he knows it would pass.

Senate leaders say they have the votes to pass it and scheduled a last-minute hearing in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday morning to review the fiscal impacts.

New estimates show that the state would have to pay about $688,000 annually to provide health insurance benefits to same-sex spouses of state employees, according to a Minnesota Management & Budget analysis.

But the analysis also says that cost would be partially offset with the collection of about $10,000 in marriage license fees in 2015.

And a UCLA law school study released in April estimated gay marriage would add $42 million to Minnesota’s economy and $3 million in tax revenue in the first three years.

Opponents of same-sex marriage spent Monday lobbying legislators, bringing in public workers and business owners from New York, which legalized gay marriage in 2011, to warn Minnesotans that religious liberties will not be adequately protected if same-ex marriage is legal.

Laura Fotusky said during a news conference that she resigned as town clerk in Barker, N.Y., because her religious beliefs prevented her from signing marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

And Robert and Cynthia Gifford, owners of Liberty Ridge Farm, said they have a human rights investigation pending against them because they refused to marry a lesbian couple at their venue.

“In New York, we were promised that the religious freedom amendment to our same-sex marriage legislation would do the job,” said the Rev. Jason McGuire, CEO of the New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation. “Our legislators bought the lie and today every New Yorker is living the lie.”

Supporters of gay marriage argue that’s not the case.

Minnesota’s proposed law goes to great lengths to protect religious freedoms, said Richard Carlbom, executive director of Minnesotans United for All Families.

He said the examples cited by Minnesota for Marriage, a group opposed to same-sex marriage, would already be illegal under the state’s human rights laws.

“One of the things that is most notable is that if passed, Minnesota’s marriage law would provide the most expansive religious protections in the nation,” Carlbom said.

And he said religious freedom cuts both ways. Many Episcopal churches want to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples, Carlbom said, but can’t under current law.

Also Monday, Minnesotans United for All Families launched a “Countdown to Marriage” campaign to serve as a daily reminder to gay-marriage supporters that “Minnesota is on the brink of finally allowing same-sex couples the freedom to marry and protect their families” and to contact their legislators.

Both sides say they have the votes in the House to prevail. Either way a close vote is expected.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislators control the House and Senate. But there are 17 non-metro DFLers seen as swing votes because their party favors legalizing gay marriage but they represent districts that supported the last fall’s unsuccessful effort to place an amendment in the state constitution limiting marriages to heterosexual couples.

House leaders would need at least 12 of those DFLers to vote “yes” to pass the bill if there is no Republican support. And so far, no GOP House members have said they’ll vote in favor.

Seven DFLers from those swing districts have told the Pioneer Press they will vote “yes” on the bill and two are “no” votes. The others wouldn’t commit or comment.

A group of citizens from Elbow Lake went to the Capitol on Monday to push their lawmaker, DFL Rep. Jay McNamar, to vote against legalizing gay marriage.

Almost 64 percent of voters in McNamar’s district voted in favor of the marriage amendment, but he has said he remains undecided.

“This is the hardest vote I’ve ever had,” McNamar said last week. “This vote, it tears at your heart.”

Megan Boldt can be reached at 651-228-5495. Follow her at twitter.com/MeganBoldt and facebook.com/PioneerPress.