COLUMBIA – from www.komu.com – The owner of a Columbia adult business said Friday her business is down 30 to 40 percent since Missouri’s restrictions on those businesses went into effect in August.

Nellie Symm-Gruender owns Passion’s, and she said other similar businesses have been down as much as 80 percent. Symm-Gruender is in court now with a lawsuit to stop the law. Symm-Gruender said the law, which requires adult entertainment businesses to close by midnight, its dancers to be clothed, and imposes specific building regulations on adult retail stores, is unconstitutional and costing her business.

Symm-Gruender said the general assembly failed to recognize the negative impact the law would have on the economy by hurting Missouri’s adult entertainment industry. She said that’s had a negative impact on government revenue. She also said a misleading fiscal note failed to correctly estimate the economic impact of the law.

“We believe that the legislators weren’t given full disclosure about the true amount that this was going to cost the state of Missouri,” said Symm-Gruender. She said if that’s the case, it violated legislative process when the bill went through.

“We are good citizens,” said Symm-Gruender. “We do not cause the secondary effects that it’s been reported we do.”

The hearing on her lawsuit is set for November 15.