COLUMBIA, SC — A South Carolina state senator has proposed a 20-percent tax on adult magazines to help fund the state’s $7.2 billion annual budget.Figures included in the budget indicate the tax wouldn’t provide all that much support, though. According to Sen. Mike Fair’s (R-Greenville) proposal, the porn tax would provide only $385,000 a year. The money would be earmarked to help the Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole electronically monitor sex offenders.
“Just as we’re trying to do with cigarettes, we have tried to do and continue to try to do with alcohol, is let the users of those products pay for some of the consequences that come from that,” Fair told SCNow.com. “As we think about Ted Bundy and others, quoting them, they talked about how pornography led to some of the horrible, horrible things they did.
“It’ll raise a little bit of money,” he continued, “…and perhaps more important, it draws attention to the dangers of pornography for any family. It’s a very dangerous product.”
Although the proposal came under fire as potentially afoul of Senate budget-writing rules that prohibit tax increases and law changes within the budget process, it passed with no discussion. Oddly, there was no record of a vote before the line item was added to the budget, which will be debated on the Senate floor later this month.
Ironically, while the porn-tax proposal passed, a similar measure that would have raised fees on alcohol permits was dropped after Fair argued it would have violated the same rules.
Both measures are intended to help the Senate Finance Committee free traditional funds that could be used to increase state employees’ wages and defray their rising health insurance costs. In addition, the Senate is dealing with a House reallocation of $106 million from the Department of Health and Human Services reserves to other agencies.
The “porn tax” would apply to any magazines that gratuitously display nudity. Scientific and educational publications would be exempt.
