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Posted on 12/06/2007 11:06:38 AM PST by Snickering Hound
AUSTIN — A coalition of strip clubs has filed a lawsuit seeking to block a state law that would add a $5 surcharge for every strip club visitor.
The new fee, which was approved this year by the Texas Legislature, is set to take effect on Jan. 1. It's expected to raise about $40 million to be dispersed for sexual assault prevention programs and health care for the uninsured.
The Texas Entertainment Association and Karpod, Inc., the operator of an Amarillo club, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Travis County against Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Comptroller Susan Combs.
The lawsuit argues that the fee would amount to an unconstitutional tax on nude dancing, a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. It also says the measure unfairly targets strip clubs, while not including modeling studios and adult video arcades. Strip club owners have said that the fee unfairly links their customers to rape.
"Exotic nude dancing is protected speech under the First Amendment," the lawsuit says. "It (the fee) singles out income derived from protected speech for a burden the state places on no other income."
The state doesn't keep a record of how many strip clubs there are in Texas, but the comptroller's office says there are 151 sexually oriented businesses that serve alcohol.
Officials from the attorney general's office said they will seek to uphold the fee.
Rep. Ellen Cohen, a Houston Democrat who supported the fee, said the strip club owners didn't speak up when the bill was designed.
"I didn't hear from them then," she said. "If this money gets held up, it's very detrimental to what we're trying to do."
Annette Burrhus-Clay, executive director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, said she was disappointed by the lawsuit.
"We were really hoping this industry would see this as an opportunity to do something positive for the communities they're in," she said. "We're going to fight it because we believe in the merits of our position."
An attorney for the plaintiffs declined comment.
A hearing on the case hasn't been set, but the plaintiffs hope it will be before the surcharge takes effect next month.
The surcharge funds aren't due to the comptroller's office until April, meaning the agency could choose to hold onto the money and not disperse it until the case is resolved.
Yup. Without any parental notification requirements, too.
Make it $100! I hate these places. They degrade women, ruin neighborhoods and break up families.
I’d liked to see a $1,000 a day tax for overstaying a student visa...
Whoa! I only saw the specials on HBO, and was shocked. Shocked I tell you!
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If that is your attitude on the issue of such clubs, work with the legislature to outlaw them outright or to require greater scrutiny and licensing to establish such a business.
Sin taxes are fine when they aren’t being levied on your vice. And when they are being levied on your vice, you may ask “for what” is the government funding with these new taxes.
The sheer number of taxes being levied has gone up a lot.
Enough bad door taxes. Be upfront about them.
Because I am single with lotsa disposable income. ;>)
Well, it's certainly in the top three.
U saying you go there to check out the audio equipment?
;-)
I think the internet does the same. You own me $100 for your post.
Taxing strip club patrons, god they just don't effing give up do they?
I was born and raised in Texas but thankful I left. I will always be a proud Texan, but it seems the Texas I was born and raised in no longer exist.
Excellent comeback.
Strip club patron’s don’t have a lobby in Texas, but it looks like they will soon.
Government employees’ job is to enlarge government. For that, they need more taxes. For more taxes, they need to find some group to prey upon, and that group needs to be a part of the population that a majority of voters will not defend.
You know ... bad people. Like smokers, or drinkers, or strip club patrons, or the wealthy, or the childless, or ...
As far as government is concerned, if you don’t need their help, then you need to be hit with a tax to fund their help for others.
Clever!
“I thought the SCOTUS banned a pole taxes.”
It’s not realy a tax, it’s a pole toll.
Just ask Rick Perry.
“They’ve gone into overdrive with taxes (and revenue tickets) in Texas in the past 5 years.
Cumulative we’ve seen a real raping of our wallets and there could STILL be a state income tax at some stage.”
Wow aren’t you happy that we have a “Republican” controled legislature? What a bunch of RINOs.
This will be paid in cash, right? So now, instead of not reporting their own $5.00 cover charges to the state or IRS, the clubs can collect and not report an additional $5.00 “tax.” Brilliant.
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