Senator proposes tax on adult entertainment

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- First, Missouri banished sexy billboards and young strip dancers. Now, a state senator wants to force adult entertainment businesses out of the Show Me State by stripping them of their profits.

Legislation pending in the Senate would impose a 20 percent tax on revenue of all "sexually oriented businesses," charge a $5 fee for each person entering their doors and prohibit them from staying open late at night.

"The goal of the bill is to make Missouri inhospitable for these businesses," said Republican Sen. Matt Bartle, of Lee's Summit.

Adult entertainment executives question whether the legislation violates constitutional free-speech and expression rights and warn it could hurt the state's economy.

"It's a small business killer and it's a job killer," said Dick Snow, owner of Bazooka's Showgirls in Kansas City and a board member of the Missouri Association of Club Executives, the industry's trade group.

As many as 1,000 Missouri businesses could be affected by the legislation, said Snow, who suggested the proposed taxes also could hit mainstream video and book stores that carry a few adult titles.

Two years ago, Missouri passed a law banning nude dancers younger than 19. Last year, Missouri enacted a phased-in prohibition of most billboards for sexually oriented businesses.

Bartle, who sponsored the billboard law, is chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, which held an early hearing this session on his latest attempt to curtail adult entertainment businesses, which are common along Missouri's rural interstates and in its big cities.

If passed, the new taxes and admission fees would go to schools, but Bartle acknowledged his true purpose is to limit the industry.

Bartle's legislation would also prohibit adult entertainment businesses from being open between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. or on Sundays and holidays, and prohibit anyone younger than 21 from working at such businesses.

$12 million in taxes

Angelina Spencer, director of the national Association of Club Executives, estimated that adult entertainment clubs already generate about $12 million a year in Missouri tax revenue.

She said similar ideas have cropped up in a few other states.

For example, the Utah Legislature passed a special 10 percent tax on strip clubs and escort services to raise money for sexual offender treatment, but the tax faces a legal challenge. Also, Texas Gov. Rick Perry last year proposed a $5 admission fee on adult entertainment establishments to help fund education, but the proposal wasn't enacted.

Snow said the adult entertainment industry would likely challenge the Missouri proposal in court, if it's enacted.

Some adult entertainment owners contend the state already has targeted them enough.

"They're just picking too hard on an establishment that really can't defend themselves," said Skyler Ward, owner of American Hunks and Sweethearts Strip-A-Gram, which operates in Kansas City, St. Louis and elsewhere. "Why would you want to kill the industry?"

Spencer suggested the answer had more to do with God than government.

"This is nothing more than an argument over sin and what someone believes is sinful," Spencer said. "You don't have to like the industry. But we live in this republic that's supposed to be run as a democracy."