Blog: 5/13
Porn Tax is Back, Nutty Statements on TV
Porn Tax: It’s back. The “porn tax” is being considered and argued once again in Sacramento. State Assemblyman Charles Calderon has once again proposed a special tax on adult businesses in California. The Democrat from the El Monte area believes that porn leads to drug abuse, prostitution and other crimes. He also contends that adult businesses cause mental and physical health issues that leave taxpayer’s footing the bill. In order to combat these problems, Calderon has proposed a 25% tax on all adult businesses operating in California. Porn companies, adult retailers, toy companies, strip clubs, you name it. You name it. They will all be hit with a 25% tax. (By the way I am going to repeat that number over and over just to let it sink in.)
The Assemblyman has introduced similar taxes in the past and is no stranger to the sort of selective taxation that creates strange bedfellows in the state capitol. At a hearing yesterday, representatives for the adult industry spoke out against that tax. They were joined by former porn performer turned anti-porn crusader Shelly Lubben. Oddly enough, it is state Republicans who represent the best chance of killing the tax. On the other side of the aisle, Lubben is arguing against the socially conservative Republicans who would normally be her best allies. Predictably Shelly testified that STD’s are rampant in the industry and that drugs on set are common. She said “Marijuana and meth and you name it they’ll give it to you.”. More on Shelly and drugs later.
The industry was represented by performers and Free Speech Coalition lawyers who argued that the tax is being proposed without any credible support of hard evidence. Indeed, the chicken and egg argument can easily be applied. Does porn cause drug abuse, or does drug abuse lead one to porn? The industry also argued that the tax would be levied at every step along the distribution chain. In all fairness I have found no clear explanation on this matter. Is it a one time tax on the purchase of a DVD or the cover charge at a strip club? Or will 25% be added at every step of production? Will your chicken wings inside the strip club cost 25% more? Let’s go ahead and argue that it’s just a one-time fee for the time being. 25% on the price of an adult DVD at your local smut shack. So your $25 movie now costs $30. (More if you add in the 8% California already gets.) All of a sudden, ordering from a web site outside of the state starts to sound really good. But wait, Calderon is also behind a bill to tax porn and other goods purchased on the internet. (More on THAT later as well.)
The reports indicate that the adult industry hires more than 50,000 Californians a year and brings in 6 billion dollars. What Calderon is actually proposing is that we put these people out of work and remove that 6 billion from the state completely. What porn company is going to produce adult DVDs in California when moving operations to Nevada, Florida or Arizona would cut costs by 25% at every step? What consumer is going to spend $26.60 for a DVD at the corner store when the same title can be ordered on line for 20 with free or cheap shipping? This sort of selective taxation is exactly the sort of thing that everyone should fight whether it is aimed at the porn industry or not.
And am I the only who wonders what the hell Calderon is going to do with this $665 MILLION dollars he says the tax will bring in? Does he actually expect us to believe that every penny of that money will go for drug treatment and health care for ex-porn stars? If that is the case then there will be one hell of a great hospital/rehab center waiting for porn stars when they retire. We all know that it’s BS though. Calderon will use the money to fill the huge hole he and others in the California Legislature have created over the past ten years by giving away anything and everything they can. This money won’t go to help the Shelly Lubben’s of the world. It will go to help pay for the mounting costs of supporting millions of illegal immigrants. In this way, the porn tax is like every other tax in California. All the posturing by Calderon and Lubben won’t change that. More, later.
