A Pole Tax is an Unfair Tax

A few days ago the Los Angeles Times ran a story by Miguel Bustillo about taxes in Texas. It seems back in 2007, Texas passed a $5-per-patron fee (tax) on strip clubs to raise more than $40 million annually for anti-sexual-assault programs and health care for uninsured Texans.

Now most people would pile on the subject of health care. Here we go again with this health care nonsense. But you would be missing the big picture.

They imposed this stupid tax to raise some $40 million dollars per year in order to pay for anti-sexual-assault programs. It has been dubbed the “pole tax”.

There is no correlation between strip clubs and sexual assault at all. So why would Texas do such a thing? Because like many other states and the Federal Government, they think they can trample on your rights and liberty simply by tossing a tax on something they don't like.

You can call it whatever you want but the reality is, a license, a fee, a toll, all are nothing more than a tax. Taxes are used to control the behavior of you and me and it is unconstitutional. Yes, I said it. I am not a huge fan of strip clubs and I do believe they can be regulated as far as their location. (No a strip club should not be located in the same block as a high school)

But to regulate in such a way as to prohibit or discourage its usage is unconstitutional. It is not the governments job to do such a thing. And they damn sure have no business raising money from it.

The story says that the fee took effect on January 1 and that the owners of 162 strip joints in Texas took the state to court. The owners said politicians were cynically taxing a population they knew would not fight back. After all, men who make a habit of drinking and stuffing dollar bills in the attire of scantily clad women are usually not eager to tell the world about it at legislative hearings.

This could be said for a number of things. Which is why smokers pay such a heavy tax. I don't smoke cigarettes. I hate them. I think they stink. I think they are deadly. But I do NOT believe that smokers should be taxed so heavily on something that is legal. I do NOT believe they should be ousted from private businesses just because someone in a legislative chamber doesn't like them.

The story goes on to say that on March 28 of this year, Travis County District Judge Scott H. Jenkins said in his ruling that laws limiting such expression had to pass strict constitutional tests and that the pole tax didn't because, among other things, indigent health care had no connection to strip joints.

So this judge struck down this tax and well he should have. Just because government needs money it does not mean it can just go out and start taxing things it does not like. Besides it is not the governments job to provide funding for any kind of program or group.

Although it was done on a state level instead of the federal level (where such a thing should be done if it is done at all) it does not mean it should be done in the first place. And to levy a special tax leaves the door wide open for just about any activity to be taxed.

We have heard about the government wanting to tax snack foods and beer. They have wanted to tax SUV's and dirt bikes. They have wanted to tax certain professions like massage therapist. It does not end. Once you open the door to special or targeted taxes then we all become targets.

If the government cannot get by with the income it already has coming in, then it needs to figure out why that is and start getting rid of programs it has no business funding or administering. Think about it. We get reasoning for just about every new tax, fee or fine that comes down the pike now. The government may have a valid reason for doing something, but does it fit the Constitution is the question that needs to be answered. Kind of like seat belt laws which really are not about safety, they are about raising money for the government. Simple.

This pole tax was not about helping sexual assault victims, it was about raising money. Think about it, if this tax succeeded and ended up closing down the strip club industry, would sexual assault go away? No. Would the programs funded by those taxes go away? No. So how would they pay for those programs then?

Same for the smokers tax. If everyone stopped smoking, where would they get the billions in taxes collected every year to fund all the programs out there? From you and me in some other manor.

A tax is a tax and it is about control not about the programs that they say it will fund. It is about limiting your liberty your freedom. Don't fall for it next time someone in your state wants to tax something your or they don't like. Because someone will propose a tax on something you do like to do that they object to, like breathing.