KANSAS – Representative Shari Weber has decided that the citizens of Kansas have had enough immorality, and she’s going to do something about it. Although she can’t immediately close down the state’s adult oriented businesses, she can – and plans to – introduce a sin tax.Weber is one of a number of theoretically anti-tax Republicans willing to compromise their values on the issue in order to rid the state of legal but controversial businesses. “Enough is enough. It’s time to say ‘stop,’” the Herington representative explained.
Although a jihad by Christian conservatives against sexually oriented businesses is moving its way through the courts and toward the state Legislature, the process is slow enough that some are frustrated and thus seeking alternatives. Weber believes that a sizable excise or licensure tax on exotic dance clubs or shops that sell adult videos or sex toys is the answer and has commissioned a study to evaluate the feasibility of such a thing. She doesn’t pretend that her goal is anything short of running the industry that she considers immoral out of Kansas, either. When asked whether the goal was to levy a tax high enough to cause businesses to close, she replied in the affirmative. “That’s certainly part of the mix,” she confirmed. “These places are harmful.”
Weber is working in tandum with Phillip Cosby of Citizens for Strengthening Community Values, a group dedicated to shutting down businesses that sell adult products in Abilene, Great Bend, Hays, Salina, and Witchita. The group has failed so far in its efforts to have adult businesses closed for obscenity violations. In fact, although a grand jury did serve up 29 misdemeanor charges against Lion’s Den, an adult bookstore in Abilene, they were eventually thrown out on a technicality. Two Salina businesses were saved from the process of obscenity litigation when a grand jury refused to indict them.
When the 2006 Kansas legislative session begins, Weber wants a special legislative committee to research the results of special adult entertainment tax efforts in other states, including proposals submitted in Missouri and Oklahoma. Such a tax was imposed in Utah during 2004 but challenged by clubs and an escort service. A 10-percent tax stalled in the Oklahoma Senate and although Missouri did pass tougher strip club and adult video store regulations, an effort to apply a 20-percent tax on gross business receipts and five dollar per-person entry fee to businesses failed. According to supporters, the Missouri plan appealed not only to anti-industry elements on the right wing but also their far left counterparts, who claim that the industry exploits women. Nonetheless, conservatives in the Missouri Senate stuck to their pledge not to raise taxes, in spite of support for the tax from the governor’s office.
Other than pure dislike for tax increases, reasons for opposition to the sin taxes has been varied and includes lack of clarity about precisely which businesses would be targeted to a dislike for funding schools with a “pornography tax” to disgust at the idea of taxing businesses explicitly for the purpose of causing their collapse. Rep. Arlen Siegfriend is an Olathe social conservative Republican as well as member of the Special Committee on Assessment and Taxation that will evaluate the proposed tax. He summed up his opposition to the sin tax with a comparison to tobacco use. “I’m against smoking,” he pointed out,” But it’s a business and it’s not illegal.” Although he admits that shutting down legal adult businesses would likely satisfy his constituents, he confesses that he is not eager to do so.
