TOPEKA - Supporters of a proposal to place an excise tax on sexually oriented businesses said Friday that it should go even further.
They told the House Tax Committee that the tax should be 25 percent, not 10 percent, and that it should be extended to all sexually explicit merchandise, including hotel movies and magazines sold at some convenience stores.
In its current form, the bill would apply to escort services, strip clubs and adult book and video stores. It is modeled after a Utah law and a bill before the Oklahoma Legislature.
"The behavior choices of sex offenders are fueled with the merchandise available at sexually oriented businesses," said Rep. Shari Weber, [pictured] a Herington Republican and the bill's sponsor.
In urging the higher tax rate, Phillip Cosby, an anti-pornography activist from Abilene, said 10 percent would not be enough to offset the adverse effects of pornography on society. He pointed to a bill in the U.S. Senate that would impose a 25 percent tax on the profits of Internet pornography.
"If 30 percent of the inmates in our Kansas prisons are sex offenders, I think it's a logical place to set that (tax) percentage," he said.
Researchers estimated last fall that a 10 percent tax would result in about $1 million in revenue. That amount would be higher, Cosby said, if pornographic products were taxed as well as adult-oriented businesses.
No one spoke Friday against the proposal, but last fall a lawyer representing three adult video and bookstores in Wichita said such a law would violate the right of free speech and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. He promised a lawsuit if the bill became law.
Rep. Kenny Wilk, a Lansing Republican and committee chairman, assigned the bill to a subcommittee to work on suggested changes and make sure all the legal aspects were analyzed. The subcommittee will be led by Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, who is a lawyer.
Wilk said writing legislation to cover certain products was more difficult than applying a tax to a business.If enacted, 40 percent of the revenue generated by the tax would be used for the treatment of sex offenders and their victims, 40 percent would go to the Kansas Department of Corrections and 20 percent would go toward Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline's prosecution of criminals who use the Internet to procure children or teenagers for sex.
