Let’s Vilify Some More People
Representative Mark Miloscia just introduced a bill that would add an 18.5% sales tax to all adult entertainment items. The Digest of the Bill reads:
“Dedicates revenue from a tax on the sale and use of adult entertainment materials and services to crime victims’ compensation, with an emphasis towards providing services, support, or therapy to those children who are victims of sexual abuse.
Imposes an additional tax on each retail sale of adult entertainment materials and services equal to eighteen and one-half percent of the selling price. Requires all revenue collected on sales and use of adult entertainment materials and services to be deposited in the general fund to be used solely for the general assistance unemployable program.”
I’m pro-tax in almost any regard, and I really appreciate that we’re in dire need of new streams of revenue. But this bill is completely wrong.
I believe in the “sin tax”. I think raising the taxes on cigarettes makes sense, as they do have a tangible cost to society. (Full disclosure: I’ve never smoked in my life.)
I can also get behind taxes on alcohol. Like cigarettes, they have an associated cost to society (DUI’s, disintegrating livers, urine in alleyways) that’s not bundled into the cost of production. (Full disclosure: I got so drunk in Portland last weekend I vomited in my pants.)
But this doesn’t pass those same standards. First off, it’d be very difficult to associate any real, tangible, negative affects of pornography or sex toys on society. If anything, I think it’d be easier to prove their positive effect. (One example would be this study that links an increase in access to Internet pornography to a decrease in rape.)
Second, this tax is simply meant to impose a tax on people who generally would be unwilling to speak up for themselves. Unfortunately we’re still living in the remnants of a very Puritanical society, and many people are rather closeted about their adult entertainment expenditures. It’s a very dangerous precedent to set to tax people who are either afraid or unable to defend themselves.
And third, the adult entertainment industry isn’t a good revenue source. With the rise of YouTube-style porn sites, the vast majority of porn is now available for free. In addition, unless the state gets a LOT better at policing our Internet use, it’s going to be a hard item to itemize. Especially since the providers (who are mostly out of state already) will simply move further away from Washington.
Seriously folks. It’s time for a fucking income tax.
Tags: porn, sex-negative, Tax, Washington
I would do almost anything to save GAU (General Assistance Unemployable). It provides financial assistance to people who CANNOT work due to a disability. The governor wants to cut all of this out of the budget. I will watch as much porn as necessary to save the economy.