Nevada refuses brothels' request to pay taxes

The Gray Lady. In a teddy?

LAS VEGAS — It is virtually unheard of for any legal industry to ask to be taxed. And it would seem even more unlikely for any government, especially one facing down a nearly $2 billion budget gap, to hesitate when a business is willing to pay up.

Yet such is the case for Nevada’s brothels, a $50-million-a-year industry that pays significant amounts of tax to the rural counties in which they operate but only a $100 business license fee to the state.

“Anytime you’re going to take tax money, the state’s not going to view you as a relic of a past time and put you out of business,” explained Mr. Flint, who said he was gaining traction for a brothel tax in 2003 until he made the faux pas of joking to a reporter that he would commit to putting the governor’s portrait in every prostitute’s lair along with a note reading, “Don’t forget the governor’s share.”

Heh.

Mr. Coffin disputed the speaker’s assertion that a brothel tax would require statewide legalization and called it a “legal backdoor” to avoid the matter.

The, er, 'backdoor' is already 'legal'. It's just extra.

Go read the rest. I'm pretty sure one of the reasons Nevada doesn't tax brothels is that they'd be embarrassed to say where the tax comes from, while doing the same thing to the people that politicians and prostitutes do everywhere.

I'm a big booster of legalized prostitution for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here, and I applaud Nevada for its progressive attitude in the matter. It's about the only thing 'progressive' in that state. If people want it, and it's harmless, let 'em have all they want and tax it. Use of the product is voluntary and these are hard times.

The same can be said for legalization and taxation of marijuana. Just as an aside, there was a great show on CNBC last night about California's No.1 cash crop. Catch it if you can.

Shit, if I could pay a little tax to run open pipes on my motorcycle, I'd gladly cough up. Most of you should be glad I can't. I'd tune that sucker for loud and set off every car alarm in yer neighborhood at 3AM! Heh.

Note: I'm just woofin' about exhaust pipes for fun. Noise is folks' biggest complaint about bikes and I support stock-muffled motorcycles. In town, anyway. I do wish bikes had exhaust cut-outs for out-of-town use like they used to many years ago.