KANSAS CITY, KS – You know the old saying; “if at first you don’t succeed….”Proponents of boosting taxes for adult entertainment businesses will be putting that old adage into play again in the months to come, the Kansas City Star reports, putting new twists on “porn tax” legislative measures that, thus far, have failed to bear fruit.
Phillip Cosby, of the Kansas City office of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, told the Star that “Two out of three people who took part in a recent Wichita poll said the adult entertainment industry should be taxed at a higher level,” adding that the notion has “popular support and bipartisan support.”
According to the Star, Kansas State Rep. Lance Kinzer said a bill will be introduced next year proposing the establishment of a special occupation license for adult businesses like strip clubs and adult video stores, separate from the occupational licenses issued to other businesses.
Matt Bartle, a Missouri State Senator, told the Star that the Show Me State is of like mind.
“That’s exactly the direction we’re going,” Bartle said. “We’re going to empower local governments to come up with a licensing fee that bears some relationship with the costs associated with regulating these smut shops.”
Kinzer knows that passing such measures is just the beginning, though.
“All these approaches are fraught with legal technicalities,” said Kinzer.
Bartle ought to be plenty familiar with the “technicalities” involved, having recently been on the losing end of a decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down a Missouri law regulating billboards advertising sexually-oriented businesses.
“When you are trying to regulate smut shops, you understand that the legislative work is only step one and then after that, you’re going to have to battle in court,” Bartle said,
Undeterred, Bartle said he will introduce a new billboard law in the coming year, noting that the court offered guidance on how the law might be repaired and rewritten in such a way that it does not run afoul of First Amendment protections.
Proponents of so-called “porn tax” laws argue that there is a “cause-and-effect” relationship between pornography and sex crimes and, as such, the state has a compelling interest in taxing adult entertainment businesses differently from other businesses. It’s the same thinking, Bartle, Cosby, and Kinzer claim, according to the Star, as the logic behind taxing alcoholic beverages more heavily than milk.
Free Speech Coalition Director Diane Duke, also interviewed for the Star article, said she thinks the alcohol and milk analogy fails.
“In our case, you’re taxing free speech,” said Duke. “That’s where a big line needs to be drawn.”
Missouri and Kansas are not alone in considering specific taxation of adult businesses; similar laws have been introduced in at least six states and an adult entertainment tax passed in Utah currently is being challenged in court.
