Don't Mess With Texas...Strip Club Owners
Last year Texas lawmakers implemented a $5 tax on admission into strip clubs, explaining the extra fee would raise more than $40 million for anti-sexual assult programs and healthcare, but recently a district judge ruled the tax-law unconstitutional.
The fee, which took effect Jan. 1, infuriated the owners of Texas' 162 strip clubs, who said politicians were cynically taxing a population they knew would not fight back. After all, critics reasoned, men who make a habit of drinking and stuffing currency in the attire of scantily clad women are usually not eager to tell the world about it at legislative hearings.
Someone was eager to talk about it, however, a district judge who ruled that the tax violated the strip club owner's first amendment rights. He said healthcare was not an appropriate concern of strip clubs.
"There is no evidence that combining alcohol with nude erotic dancing causes dancers to be uninsured, that any dancer is in fact uninsured, or that any uninsured dancer could qualify for assistance from the fund," [Judge Scott Jenkins] said.
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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