AUSTIN – from www.dallasnews.com- In the battle over strip club legislation, the adult entertainment industry now has a leg up.

A bill to force strip clubs to pay a $3-per-patron fee – backed by sexual-assault prevention groups, whose cause would have benefited from the money – died in the House on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, an admissions tax endorsed by topless clubs has been approved by both the House and Senate. It would repeal the $5-per-patron fee lawmakers designed to fund sexual assault prevention and health care for the poor. The fee has been tied up in the courts since it was approved in 2007.

In addition to repealing the $5 fee, the strip club industry bill would collect a 10 percent tax on admissions fees charged by all sexually oriented businesses and use the revenue to fund education and sexual assault prevention. The measure, authored by Houston Rep. Senfronia Thompson, is effectively voluntary – clubs would be taxed only if they charge admission.

Houston Rep. Ellen Cohen, [pictured] who authored the 2007 bill that established the $5 fee, said the bill she pushed this session would have solved lingering constitutional questions by bringing the fee down to $3 and directing revenue only to sexual assault services, not to health care. That bill was knocked off the calendar Wednesday after Houston Rep. Harold Dutton raised a technicality to kill it. Cohen could still try to tack her legislation on to another measure as an amendment.

Supporters of Cohen’s bill, who have gone on a media blitz this week, have asked Gov. Rick Perry to veto Thompson’s bill. A spokeswoman for Perry said he’ll consider the bill if it reaches his desk. But the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, which opposes Thompson’s bill, has a strong ally in first lady Anita Perry, who works for the organization.

“The question has to be asked: Do you want to be with the strip club owners or a supporter of sexual assault advocates?” said Torie Camp, deputy director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault

Meanwhile, the Senate, which approved Thompson’s bill Tuesday, will reconsider that vote later this week. That unusual move appears to have been precautionary: Lawmakers thought Cohen’s bill would slide through the House and quickly land in the Senate, and they wanted Thompson’s bill to be the last one they passed.

“The last bill to pass will be the bill that prevails,” said Dallas Republican Sen. John Carona, the Senate sponsor of Thompson’s bill. Because Cohen’s bill died Wednesday, “it may be such that we didn’t need to take the action we did today.”