Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 | 1:55 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Sun Archives
- Life after prostitution: Bill would erase convictions in some cases (3-7-11)
- Facing possible life sentence, troubles worsen for alleged pimp (8-8-09)
- The pimp: Was it a role or was it a reality? (8-1-09)
- Senate committee kills prostitution tax bill (4-9-09)
- Prostitutes testify in favor of tax (4-8-09)
- Proposed bill would tax prostitution at $5 per session (3-23-09)
- Pimps, Metro's coming for you (3-20-2009)
- Hawking erotic services? Craigslist now has your number (11-29-2008)
- Hands tied on prostitution (9-15-07)
CARSON CITY — After decades of pleading, Nevada’s legal brothel industry was about to get its wish of paying taxes, giving prostitution the legitimacy that comes with contributing to the state’s bank account.
But new taxes proposed by Democrats appear to be dead, or at least on life support, and so too the chance for the state to tax the willing and able brothel industry.
Nevada is the only state with legal prostitution, but it has a somewhat awkward relationship with its industry.
For one thing, it’s illegal in Washoe and Clark counties, home to Reno and Las Vegas.
Second, lawmakers have been bashful about bringing “that money” into the mix to pay for things such as schools, universities and social services.
The reasons are understandable. Anytime prostitution is brought up, it attracts a media frenzy drowning out the serious work they’re doing. Also, some politicians have said, the brothel money would somehow stain the good, clean dollars used to pay for schools and safety net (from the wholesome casino and construction industries).
As people move in and the political environment shifts, the industry views itself as vulnerable. No less than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used his address to the Legislature this year to call for outlawing brothels.
So the industry, at least since the 1990s, has volunteered to pay into the state’s tax coffers. If the brothels pay money to the state, the thinking goes, it’s one more reason that lawmakers won’t ban prostitution.
(The industry pays money to counties, tens of thousands of dollars, in privileged business license fees.)
In 2009, former state Sen. Bob Coffin, now running for Las Vegas City Council, proposed a $5 per transaction tax for legal acts of prostitution. But it died, with legislative leadership not wanting to deal with a potentially controversial distraction in a pressure-cooked Legislature.
“That’s the closest we got,” said George Flint, longtime lobbyist for the brothel industry.
(In 2003, when lawmakers were discussing a live entertainment tax, Flint said the industry agreed to a 10 percent entrance fee, but was rebuffed.)
So fast-forward to 2011. Under two proposed taxes, a “margin tax” and a sales tax on services, the state would get some general fund dollars from the state’s bordellos, other than $200 it gets from them filing for a business license.
Democratic leadership has proposed the margin tax, based on a company’s adjusted gross revenue, but that appears dead or dying, sources conceded.
Flint said only three operations would meet the threshold of $1 million a year in business.
A sales tax on services would be the first tax on “the act of prostitution,” Flint said. Currently, the sales tax is only collected on the sale or use of tangible goods, such as a Big Mac, and not on things such as haircuts.
A Democratic source said the brothel industry would indeed be included in the sales tax on services, which would be 1 percent under the current proposal. Leadership began with a broad definition of what to tax, and then exempted certain services, such as health care or child care, that were deemed essential.
Flint said the industry, despite struggling in the recession, supports being taxed.
(He noted that brothels pay sales tax on food and drinks they serve, as well as other things. “We actually sell a lot of souvenirs,” he said.)
But the real money, Flint said, comes if the Legislature ever decides to legalize and regulate prostitution in Clark County. If 1,000 women got work cards for four “dates” a day and charged $500 a date (almost half of the average rate at a Pahrump brothel, Flint said) it would generate $7.3 billion in annual economic activity.
Figuring a 40/40/20 split among the worker, the owner of the operation, and the government entity, Flint said it could generate $146 million a year.
“I haven’t been showing this around too much,” Flint said of the estimates. “At some point, I figure they’ll realize they have a budget problem and come ask.”
Better to bring it back to Clark County & tax it! And it keeps the ladies safe, while they get STD checkups once a month.
YOU JUST CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!!!
Only in NEVADA, USA.
I swear to God, there is not a LICK of cents...
Why are politicians so stupid?
Follow the money.
Political contributions from right wing religious wackos who want to impose their morals on everyone.
The hypocrisy is that politicians are some of the best customers for sex workers.
They don't care that sex workers make an good living and that this is one of the few jobs left in the US where women can make a good income.
So if i read this correctly the oly way we can tax prostitution is if we raise taxes on everyone else too. yea seems like kind of a puff piece as a general tax on service would also cover prostitution not just a singular tax.
"Nevada is the only state with legal prostitution, but it has a somewhat awkward relationship with its industry."
The REAL problem is the states' presumption it can criminalize what consenting adults do in private. All that really happened here was a sort of begrudging acceptance and, like all commerce, it was organized along traditional business models.
This state's hypocrisy is naked for all -- despite all the shouting about the budget, here's an entire industry asking permission to "pay their fair share" and Carson City turned it down again.
"If you want to dramatize the evils of prostitution, corrupt a virgin, not a whore." -- Blake Edwards, director and screenwriter (1981)
Bob- "one of the few jobs left in the US where women can make a good income." - what a bunch of sexist, misogynistic horse manure. please go crawl back into your cave.
as for taxing the Brothel industry - These people need to GROW UP. Nevada will sacrifice teachers, firefighters, and police because they are too proud, too stuck in the political quagmire, and obviously to STUPID and SHORTSIGHTED to
tax what would be a huge benefit to out communities.
FOOLS - all of them.
VOTE THEM OUT.
No surprise that Sierra Harry is in this article. The liberal voters, mainly in Clark County, made a gigantic blunder by re-electing this dude.
To some of us, it sounds silly that tax dollars from brothels would be "dirty" while dollars from gambling are "clean". Sin is sin, right? Nobody is forced to gamble or go to brothels. Since they are CHOSEN "sins", what difference is there in tax money from either? How about taxes on tobacco and booze? Are those dollars "clean" too?
Sometimes, politicians act just plain silly.
When are these idiots going to realize that you can't legislate morality but you can absolutely tax immorality?
What I don't understand about the weekly STD check once a month is .... what happens if they contract something right after they get checked? HMMMMM
Part 1
Why do they think it is fair for a women to only be allowed to escort legally if she works in a brothel and gives the owner half her earnings and then pay taxes too. What other profession is taxes 60% of their profit, especially when we do not tax SERVICES.I think indoor prostitution should be decriminalized, not legalized as there is a HUGE difference.
http://www.alternet.org/books/148327/how...
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act
Once you do a bit of reading what you find out is that back in the 19th century, marriage WAS SLAVERY. Women were not allowed to leave home till they married and marriage was a BUSINESS. Women were not allowed to go in public alone, nor work or vote and if they inherited property it became their husbands and the husband was FREE to beat and rape his wife.
In 1910 we created the MANN ACT (the white slavery act) that was suppose to be to stop Human Trafficking, yet the real reason was to stop white women from fraternizing with black men. The Mann Act also gave CONGRESS its power and formed the FBI.
Our federal law states that each state has the right NOT make its own prostitution laws and in order to be charged with the Mann act one would have to exploit another person into prostitution and cross state lines. This was the way the Fed's are suppose to intervene.
Yet in 2010 the FBI spend a 800,000 grant in just 3 days supposedly to do a 3 day nationwide child prostitution sting. After arresting 884 people, we had 69 TEEN RUNAWAYS, along with their 99 pimps boyfriends and also caught up in the mix were over 700 adults looking to meet with another consenting adult in private. During this sting, more middle aged people were arrested than THE TEENS THEY WANTED TO RESCUE.
"Proposal led by Democrats to tax services""
With less scruples than a whore, Democrats seem to be all about pimping the proliferation of social-theft.
: {
Part 2
Now we have Bill hr 5575 gong to congress which is to ask for hundreds of millions for services for these TEEN victims and the bill clearly states that any women over the age of 20 would NOT be eligible for services, and most of the money would be spend training FBI and vice to STALK MIDDLE AGED ESCORTS ONLINE.
Now every city already has a whole juvenile court, a dept of child services, foster homes, boot camps and reform schools, but the women OVER 20 years of age have NO SERVICES. These people are trying to convince us that these RUNAWAY TEENS ARE VICTIMS and they are really UNGOVERNABLE TEENS that ran off with their boyfriends that exploited them. Are we not suppose to hold these teens accountable for their own behavior, why return them them with no real intervention to just run off again, and why is the parents not being held accountable for the COST OF RESCUING THEIR UNGOVERNABLE TEEN. Why not lock these teens up to protect them from themselves?
Original prostitution laws were created "to stop a women from showing her wares in public" The media likes to portray all prostitutes as curb crawling drug addicts and yet most are really middle aged single parents desperately trying to escape POVERTY.
Last year we spend 250 million to arrest 80,000 people for prostitution, that 250 million could have housed 80,000 women and children long term.
Part 3
Yet anyone wanting to legalize prostitution wants the women to help pay off the deficit, nobody is even considering creating long term services for women who do want to exit the industry. Or they want these women to be forced to work in brothels where they would have to give half their earnings to the brothel owner, pay rent and then pay taxes and not be able to refuse any clients.
We are no dumb women, we know how to screen clients, advertise and choice our rates for our time. We not not need to be regulated anymore than any other business does, so why would we place regulations on this industry that is not placed on any other business. Why do we make it our business?
In Rhode Island, in 1976 a federal laws suit was filed in RI by a women named Mona St.James who later formed the organization COYOTE . The complaint was what right did they state have in the sexual conduct of consenting adults, and also they were only arresting the women and not the men. The case was dismissed by a compromise and indoor prostitution became legal in RI in 1979.
For 30 years there was never one case of human trafficking, women could work for massage spas or from their homes. There was never one public nuisance complaint in over 30 years (too bad we can't say that about nightclubs). The police never bothered to go into any spa, and check for ID to make sure the girls were of legal age and in the country legally. Yet they did run front page news articles about how sad it was that one could buy sex a block from city hall. These businesses were licensed and paid taxes and they even donated money to the state police and other local charities and the women spend their money in the other local businesses.
In 2009 the Craigslist killer, killed a girl in Boston and then went to RI and robbed a escort and he was CAUGHT because the escort dialed 911 as she had PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW.
Part 4
Then in Nov 2009 they criminalize indoor prostitution (putting all the women in the state in harms way) as they claimed they could not investigate human trafficking without criminalizing us.
Ironically the police go in to strip clubs all the time and do ID checks and ask the girls if they are OK but for some reason they insisted this would not work in RI.
Now we have 10 women who have murdered in Long Island and even though they knew at least 5 of these girls were online escorts, the cops told the media that serial killers rarely murder hookers, one man on Long Island reported the women coming to door asking for help and when he told her he was calling the cops to help her, she ran off and has never been seen again. The man reported this in May 2010 and it took till Aug 2010 for them to follow up, and even a CNN reported wants to know if a prompt investigation was not done because after all these girls were JUST HOOKERS.
Theproviderpage.com/cms is a place dedicated to THE SAFETY & PROTECTION of escorts, we are trying to find services for women WHO do want to exit the industry and we are also trying to create new laws to protect sex workers and stop the discrimination against them.
Some cites want to create JOHN school so the men can walk away within criminal record. Even if a women has a 20 year old prostitution conviction, she can never get a job, or even rent an apartment.
Law enforcement is in the news weekly, for exploiting these TEENS themselves, or for abusing hookers and some of these women are even raped and beaten while in custody just because they are prostitutes.
To go a step further we ENCOURAGE society to hate these women with the "they get what they deserve attitude". The cops brag to the media that they will continue to run these women from there communities. Do we really think these women would be better off or an safer living in the streets?
Part 4
Since they criminalize all the women in RI, the homeless rate for women in RI has increased 20% so far this year and the shelters are FULL.
Now lets look at MORALS. It is legal and even sociably acceptable for a women to pick up a strange man in a nightclub, bring him he and have unprotected sex with him, while her small children are in the home. Men are now reporting that most women give it up by the 3rd date.
Then we have the REAL HATERS that say they do NOT want it in their neighborhoods, while I agree with no allowing BROTHELS or Spa's In a residential neighborhood, but wha about the independent escort. If you can have sex with whoever in your home, why can't I, and we seem to only have issues with sex WHEN ITS NOT FREE.
A Canadian judge ruled last year "that no public nuisance equals allowing women to be murdered" of course its ow in appeals court and they are trying to stop the sex workers from being able to testify in court.
Then lets look at how the cops investigate these women, they use SWAT TEAMS to kick in the doors or these women homes, and then issue them a summons to appear, and some of these women are held on bonds as high as 20,000 even though they have not been charged with a felony.
Sex workers are always court ordered for STD testing but the MEN/CLIENTS are not, even though they are the ones with the riskiest behaviors and even though our own heath dept studies show that "hookers have less std's than the general public does and this is also true in Canada and these facts were presented to RI politicians by a Canadian Dr.
NY has created a law that ANYONE CAN BE ARRESTED FOR CARRYING CONDOMS, that is not the way to promote safe sex, I think law enforcement WHO is swore to PROTECT & SERVE should be out handing out condoms to the street girls to help protect them and the public
Part 5
Now lets look a the Human Trafficking advocates that have been collecting donations for the fight against human trafficking for years, the provide no services to the victims; instead the spend the money touring the country, like a politician, lying to the media about how many teens are being exploited. These grouped are anti prostitution groups in disguise and are the one PUTTING OUR YOUTH & WOMEN AT RISK by REFUSING US the same SANCTION & PROTECTION under the law given to all other citizens. Now if this is really about human trafficking, then why when they find a midlde aged escort do they arrest her?
THE SOLUTION:
If we decriminalize and make these women pay for a year license which would go to the heath dept so these women would have access to Health care, the women could pay taxes into state, federal and social security and even unemployment, but part of their taxes would go directly for services for women WHO want to exit the adult industry.
I always want to ask one of these DO GOODERS that if they were cold enough and hungry enough don't they think they would turn a trick for a blanket and burger, so why be so JUDGMENTAL about SEX.
Part 6
So enclosing, we know they do not want our tax dollars because the want to keep s SOCIAL OUTCASTS OF OUR OWN COMMUNITIES.
They can't seem to separate religion from law, and are on The Morals Witch Hunt Against Consenting Adults. They think escorts are too dumb to choose for herself or to manage her own affairs and everyone from websites to brothel owners are out to make a buck off the escorts back.
They abuse and discriminate against the women, yet nobody cares who is having sex with who unless THE WOMEN ARE SMART ENOUGH TO GET PAID.
In Tenn the Mayor just got a deferment program, too bad the escorts can't get the same deal.
Next election cycle is really simple - if it has "Incumbent" next to their name I sure as heck wont be voting for them.
Richard, part of your post is correct,...and in this matter politicians and government are simply screwed up. Money is money and if the ranches want to pay it,...take it, in reality nobody cares,...well with the exception of a few misguided holy rollers.
As for the wrong part,...the libral Harry Reid comment. I'm 110% against his stance on prostitution in Nevada,...he's out to lunch on this issue and many others,...but if you remember he was running against an imbecile,...the lesser of two evils won.