Nevada lawmakers squeamish about prostitution tax

— Nevada taxes you when you have a drink, when you catch a show and when you buy some smokes – and of course it gets a piece of your action at the casino. But if you're looking for a sin-tax haven, you could head to a brothel.



"I don't know why people won't recognize that we have a legal industry," said Sen. Bob Coffin, who is pushing for a tax on the world's oldest profession. "I'm willing to go in and do the dirty work if no one else will."

Coffin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, said the state is desperate for revenue and he "will go anywhere" to find it, including the state's 25 legal brothels.

The Nevada Brothel Owners Association supports the tax, which Coffin estimated would raise at least $2 million a year. Part of the money would fund a counseling agency for sex workers.

"The bottom line is that the Chicken Ranch is a legal business," said Bob Fisher, a spokesman for the brothel in Pahrump, outside of Las Vegas. "Why should we be looked at any differently or not be given the same respect as any other business?"

Nevadans pioneered legalized gambling, prize fights and quickie divorces, and for the most part tolerated prostitution even before their state joined the union in 1864. But a long state history of going against the grain isn't likely to be enough to advance Coffin's proposal for complicated, contradictory reasons: appearances, political ambition, women's rights, morality – even prudishness in a state where you'd least expect it.

A survey by The Associated Press of the seven Senate Taxation Committee members indicates Coffin's bill will likely be at least one vote short of the four needed to move the measure out of committee when it comes up for consideration Tuesday.

"Legislators don't want to deal with it," said Guy Rocha, a Nevada historian and former state archivist. "It's so charged politically, they just want it to go away."

The issue also has some strange, er, bedfellows in opposition.

"Religious conservatives will line up with liberals and feminists who see this as demeaning to women," Rocha said. "Some don't want to give prostitution any legitimacy, even though it's legal in many rural counties."

Ten Nevada counties that authorize prostitution by local ordinance are the only places in the country that allow brothels, although Rhode Island allows people to pay for sex behind closed doors. Prostitution is outlawed in five Nevada counties, including the two encompassing its biggest cities, Las Vegas and Reno.

The Mustang Ranch east of Reno was licensed as Nevada's first legal brothel in 1971. Brothels now operate in outlying areas around the state, paying local jurisdictions assorted fees that can be a significant portion of their budgets.


