New York state needs money has found its moral center – and it’s in Brooklyn.
New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who represents Brooklyn, has proposed a new tax on strip clubs. The bill would impose a $10 per patron tax for any business that provides for any adult entertainment business featuring nude or partly nude dancers that also serves food and/or drink (apparently picnicking strip clubs would be exempt). Ortiz believes that the tax could potentially provide up to $500 million for victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual abuse and child prostitution. While touting the bill, Ortiz claimed “Through this bill, New York state will continue to forge a path for other states to follow.”
Whoa, Ortiz. Not so fast. I believe that path has already been forged: Texas has already instituted a stripper tax – remarkably similar to this one. It was struck down by a judge as unconstitutional (the right to bare boobs?) and is being appealed by attorneys for the Lone Star State.
If the tax gets the go ahead (so far, no one in the Senate is touching it with a ten foot, er, stripper pole), it could help New York patch up some rather gaping holes in the state’s budget. But it’s not really about that. It’s about helping people. Right, Ortiz?
It’s not the first tax proposed in New York in 2009 affecting the adult industry. Just last month, Governor Paterson suggested a 4% tax on digital downloads: according to the state’s budget office, the tax would also apply to porn on pay-per-view cable television. While the bill is not restricted to the adult industry, opponents of the bill are calling it a “porn tax” noting that it would likely affect the industry more than others. Interestingly, conservatives oppose the bill with Conservative Party chair Michael Long lamenting, “If you’re taxing it – how can it be wrong? I don’t know how you can sink much deeper.” (Mr. Long has clearly never been to Vegas.)
With that kind of thinking in mind, there’s a lot that is apparently wrong in the State of New York. Paterson has also considered taxing sugary sodas and juice drinks in a move critics call the “obesity tax.”
Porn taxes, obesity taxes… I’m pretty sure that almost everything will be taxed in New York by the end of the year, at least if it’s considered remotely bad for you. But it may backfire. The message they’re really sending is: get your porn and sugar now.
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