Texas defends new $5-per-visitor strip club fee

Houston Chronicle/AP ^ | Dec. 18, 2007

[SwinneySwitch]

"The clubs say the fee would amount to an unconstitutional tax on nude dancing, a form of expression protected by the First Amendment."

[fhayek]

Still no cover in Fort Erie.

[Mark was here]

How about a $5.00 fee to set foot on any one else's private property?

[DoughtyOne]

I don’t like how government zeros in on certain businesses as tax opportunities like this. Why should this business be saddled with a tax to pay for the uninsured or sex abuse victims? I hope the clubs prevail.

[org.whodat]

How about a $5.00 fee to set foot on any one else's private property?

Wrong, you pay tax to the government for you to be on your there property.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

The bastard politicians never fail to come up with new ideas for robbery to pick citizen’s pockets.

[tx_eggman]

It's expected to raise about $44 million to be dispersed for sexual assault prevention programs and health care for the uninsured

Right, and the money from the lottery is funding education ... and the money from the tobacco settlement is being used for health care < /sarcasm off

[Bob J]

Gotta love Texas, they’re right there on the cutting edge of a brave new world.

[freekitty]

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. The kettle calling the pot black. Come on. Let’s get real here. That money will not be used to help anything but the greedy government.

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

"The issue for us is an apples-to-apples issue," said state Rep. Ellen Cohen, D-Houston, author of the bill that created the fee. "This is an industry that largely employs women. It's an opportunity to do something for crimes that largely affect women."

How does "healthcare for the uninsured" become a "crime" that largely affects women?

What does "sexual assault prevention" program actually mean?

It's an industry that largely employs women. Most of them earn pretty good money - enough to buy their own heath insurance! By discouraging people from patronizing them with this unconstitutional tax, she aims to make them dependents of the government.

"This is an industry that largely employs women"
I love that quote. So she wants to punish an industry that largely employs women. To help the women of course! What a dum-dum.

[smoketree]

How about a $5.00 fee every time we get in our cars to offset medical fees from accidents?
Where does this end?
It doesn’t.
If they are allowed to get away with this there is no limit to what can be taxed for some so called “good cause”.

[crz]

Better to be known as a sex addict than a greedy politition addicted to money.

A politition is lower than a street hooker.

[smoketree]

Are you kidding? We pay a tax to be n our own property.

[umgud]

Politicians are artists when it comes to inventing ways to scam you out of your money.

[nyyankeefan]

Texas defends new $5-per-visitor strip club fee...

it must have taken a whole lot of boobs and asses must have come up with this tax!!!!

[DCPatriot]

"It's expected to raise about $44 million to be dispersed for sexual assault prevention programs and health care for the uninsured."

That would include illegal immigrants, wouldn't it? And it would follow that they would frequent these establishments...so in a way, they're helping.

Make it $20.

[Duke Nukum]

Strange for a state that is so pro-gun, and rightly so, to put such a punitive tax on racks. Just doesn’t make sense.

[MarkL]

You know, if the government would just levy a $1000 tax for every time you masturbate, think of how many kitten lives would be saved!

Please government! Save the kittens!

Mark

[Aglooka]

“Gotta love Texas, they’re right there on the cutting edge of a brave new world.”

It seems states in the Southeast trend towards large and intrusive government even though they are “Red States.”

Unfortunately these kinds of fees and taxes are what RINOs running on “values” will give us. Kind of like Huckster.

[Zakeet]

it must have taken a whole lot of boobs and asses must have come up with this tax!!!!

I predict it will be a bust ... a real flop.