TOPEKA, KS – Anti-porn activists in Kansas may have a short celebration if attorneys for adult businesses have their way. According to members of the targeted professional demographic, a proposed 10-percent sales tax being considered by the state’s legislators will not survive a legal challenge. As John Ivan, an attorney for three affected businesses in Wichita sees it, were the tax to become law, it would violate constitutionally guaranteed rights to free speech and equal protection.Supporters of the tax will address a legislative panel on the matter Tuesday and urged lawmakers to recommend the tax to the full Legislature when it reconvenes in January. A decision on the matter is expected next month.
The possible tax on adult goods is expected to raise $1 million per year and is only one of an assortment of ways those opposed to adult entertainment are attempting to run it out of Kansas. A grand jury in Wichita is determining whether or not shops in the area violate community obscenity standards and the city’s mayor is agitating for restrictive zoning ordinances that would force the relocation of businesses.
Republican representative Shari Weber is adamant about the moral need for the smut tax due to what she insists are connections between explicit material and sex crimes, which she contends cost the state valuable resources to investigate, apprehend, try, incarcerate, rehabilitate and monitor. “The state has a compelling interest to place an excise tax on these businesses,” she insists,” because of their adverse effects on the health, well-being, and safety of the citizens of our state.”
Some anti-porn protesters believe that the tax should extend to all adult materials sold in the state, regardless of where they are purchased. Unless a proposed tax does, indeed, extend to all possible retail outlets, Ivan contends that it will be unconstitutional, based upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s previous rulings on tax matters. Ivan further points out that multiple studies aimed at determining if there is a correlation between sex crimes and pornography have been unable to establish a link.
