ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY BATTLES BILL TO TAX X-RATED FARE.Byline: Steve Lawrence
Steve Lawrence (born July 8, 1935) is an American singer, perhaps best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gorm̩. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Armed with a we're-just-folks message, dozens of dancers, actors and other representatives of the adult entertainment industry lobbied Tuesday against a tax on X-rated material and performances. ``We're just like everyone else,'' said actress Shyla Foxxx. ``We are your next-door neighbors. It's unfair to tax us.'' As many as 48 industry representatives planned to break into small groups and meet with about 70 lawmakers over two days to oppose a bill by Sen. Charles Calderon, D-Montebello. The measure, designed to raise money for law enforcement and crime victims counseling programs, would impose a 5 percent tax on sexually explicit videos, publications, phone services and acts. It was scheduled to be considered today by the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. ``What we're trying to do is put a face on everybody in the industry, because everybody believes that it's made up of pimps and whores,'' said Michael Ross For the United States congressman from Arkansas, see . Michael Bruce Ross (July 26, 1959 РMay 13, 2005) was an American serial killer. Early life Ross was born in Putnam, Connecticut to Patricia Hilda Laine and Dan Graeme Ross. , the lobbyist who organized the campaign against the bill. The bill's opponents kicked off Tuesday's lobbying with a news conference at a restaurant and bar a half-block from the Capitol. They asserted that the tax would hurt an $8 billion industry made up of small businesses and denied that there was any link between adult entertainment and sex crimes. Jeffrey Douglas, executive director of The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-industry organization, pointed to a Revenue and Taxation Committee analysis of the Calderon bill that said there does not appear to be a demonstrated link between sex materials and sex crimes. To help make their case, news conference participants showed a video that mixed explicit sex scenes with clips from mainstream movies in which actors beat up actresses. The violent but nonsex films wouldn't be taxed under the Calderon measure, they said. ``What this bill represents is political correctness politically correct adj. Abbr. PC 1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. ,'' Douglas said, contending the bill is unconstitutional unconstitutional adj. referring to a statute, governmental conduct, court decision or private contract (such as a covenant which purports to limit transfer of real property only to Caucasians) which violate one or more provisions of the U. S. Constitution. . ``It says, `There is a certain kind of speech . . . that is just bad, and because it's bad we want to tax it.' '' Calderon denied that the bill was unconstitutional. ``There are several reasons for the bill,'' he said. ``One is to generate income for certain programs that have difficulty being funded on any kind of consistent basis, such as rape crisis centers Rape crisis centers evolved in order to help victims of rape, sexual abuse, and other forms of sexual violence. Also referred to as Sexual Assault Centers, RCCs serve a number of purposes. . The other purpose is to (raise money) to enforce laws against obscenity obscenity, in law, anything that tends to corrupt public morals by its indecency. The moral concepts that the term connotes vary from time to time and from place to place. In the United States, the word obscenity is a technical legal term. In the 1950s the U.S. , particularly to prosecute child pornography Child pornography is the visual representation of minors under the age of 18 engaged in sexual activity or the visual representation of minors engaging in lewd or erotic behavior designed to arouse the viewer's sexual interest. . ``There's definitely a legitimate interest that the state has in enforcing laws against child porn and obscenity.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Shyla Foxxx `Just like everyone else' |
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