Image by the wonderful elaisted.
Glad to see it fail and sink (“movies, books and magazines” — O’rly!) , and for all the reasons we suspected, snip from California’s 25% Porn Tax Defeated:
SACRAMENTO — Assembly Bill 2914, which would have imposed a 25 percent excise tax on adult products and productions, has died in committee.
The outrageous tax burden would have applied to all businesses that either sell or produce sexually explicit shows, movies, books and magazines — as well as websites.
Proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Charles Calderon, the tax was intended to offset the harms that opponents claim the industry creates, including “numerous health, safety and societal problems, including reducing property values in affected neighborhoods and encouraging unsafe sex and aggressive attitudes toward women.”
According to Diane Duke, Executive Director of FSC, who attended one of the bill’s hearings, the people Calderon got to testify were very inflammatory.
“[They] were telling lies about the industry; that people were committing suicide and that drugs were rampant on the set,” Duke said. “Of course, we had people from the set there to testify that [those things] are not happening.” (…read more, link via)
I’ve always had a problem with the concept of “sin” taxes but at least with things like alcohol and cigarettes one can show consistent, peer reviewed data showing the costs that the consumption of such products have on the public health system.
No such data exists for pornography or sex aids, in fact, there is some data that suggests the availability of such items actually benefits the public, I don’t see how a law like this can be reasonably defended.
Then again, I live in the deep south where they don’t even try to justify legal coercion of sexual behavior.
I need to move.