(Stripper) Pole Tax

(It was hard to find a clever-yet-tasteful picture of a stripper pole - this was the best I could do.)

http://www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/strip-club-tax-being-mulled/article_89e9f53a-575e-11e1-a7b0-0019bb2963f4.html

So now the state has proposed taxing heads at adult entertainment venues. As written, the law would funnel proceeds directly towards organizations that support abused women. Funny thing happens when you tie funds generated from a specific revenue source to specific expenditures - they never actually seem to go where they're supposed to. At least in Illinois they don't, anyway. Remember how Lottery funds were supposed to fund education?

At best, if this law passes - and strip club lobbyists are already chipping away at it - the additional revenue will go to support abused women. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if the state decides to cut its annual contribution to these organizations by around the amount the strip club tax generates. So basically, the strip club tax would be yet another means by which to replenish the state's general revenue fund - as it should be.

"Sin taxes" are not unusual - just look at how heavily alcohol and tobacco are hit. Illinois has to be careful, though, to not impose taxes which put strip club owners near a state line at a significant disadvantage to those on the other side - unless the state wants to lose the revenue to its more adult-entertainment-friendly neighbors on all sides. Make the tax too burdensome, and those strip club operators who have the option of relocating outside of Illinois will do so. Given the proximity of Chicago to the Wisconsin border, it's not hard to imagine a lot of revenue crossing the border if Illinois gets too aggressive with this tax.

Ultimately, this is not a huge issue, though. The tax is expected to bring in $44 million per year for the state, but if a number of clubs close or lose business to competitors across the border, that amount will be offset to a large extent by reduced liquor tax revenues and income tax paid by Illinois club owners.

I don't really have much of an opinion on the strip club tax proposal one way or another, but how far this bill goes and what form it takes if/when it's ultimately passed will tell us a lot about how politics work in Illinois.