Nevada faces up to a $3 billion budget deficit.
Meanwhile the state collects no tax from $7.3 billion in prostitution sales -- worth $146 million in state revenue, according to brothel lobbyists.
State Democrats looked at this as an opportunity to collect revenue.
Republicans, however, led by Governor Brian Sandoval, blocked efforts to levy either a services or a margin tax, according to Las Vegas Sun. The idea of supporting schools and other services with sex sales was too distasteful.
But what would a sex tax look like? Lobbyist George Flint tells the Las Vegas Sun:
[T]he real money, Flint said, comes if the Legislature ever decides to legalize and regulate prostitution in Clark County. If 1,000 women got work cards for four “dates” a day and charged $500 a date (almost half of the average rate at a Pahrump brothel, Flint said) it would generate $7.3 billion in annual economic activity.
Figuring a 40/40/20 split among the worker, the owner of the operation, and the government entity, Flint said it could generate $146 million a year.
“I haven’t been showing this around too much,” Flint said of the estimates. “At some point, I figure they’ll realize they have a budget problem and come ask.”
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