‘Pole Tax’ Still Causing Trouble for Texas Strip Clubs

Texas is pressuring state strip clubs to hand
over a couple million dollars,
a sum Texas Comptroller Susan Combs says they owe under the
state’s $5-per-patron “pole tax,” even though that tax is still
facing an ongoing court challenge. 

A lifetime ago (aka 2008), I wrote about the Texas Entertainment
Association’s challenge to this
“pole tax”—officially known as the “Sexually Oriented Business
Fee”—for then–Doublethink editor Peter
Suderman. That’s how long the Texas Entertainment Association
(TEA) has been fighting the state’s absurd attempt to extort money
from strip club patrons and owners.

Effective January 2008, the $5 fee was supposed to be levied on
every person who visited a strip club in Texas, to fund programs
for sexual assault victims and health care for the uninsured. But
the TEA immediately brought a challenge, saying the law violated
patrons’ First Amendment rights.

A state
district judge agreed, ruling the law unconstitutional. “There
is no evidence that combining alcohol with nude erotic dancing
causes dancers to be uninsured, that any dancer is in fact
uninsured, or that any uninsured dancer could qualify for
assistance,” wrote Judge Scott Jenkins in his decision. 

But the state appealed, and the Texas Supreme Court ultimately
ruled that the fee did not violate the First Amendment. In 2012,
the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. A new challenge
is facing the 3rd Court of Appeals, with the TEA now arguing that
the tax is unconstitutional because the fees are used
improperly. 

Ongoing litigation, however, is “not valid” as a reason for
dodging the fee, Combs wrote in an April 11 letter sent to about
200 Texas strip clubs. 

According
to The Texas Tribune, only one state lawmaker is
speaking out against the sexually oriented business fee. Rep.
Harold Dutton (D-Houston) responded to Combs’ recent letter with
one of his own, asking her why she’s going after the clubs now when
they’re waiting on a decision from the Texas Court of
Appeals. 

“I did send her a letter, asking her what has changed,” said
Dutton, who opposes the fee. He said that if sexual assault
programs need money, “the Legislature ought to step up to the plate
and do that.”

Instead, what often happens, he said, is that lawmakers create
fees against things they don’t like, like strip clubs.

“Where does it end once you start down that road?” he said.

The TEA’s current court challenge is based partly on the claim
that the fee violates the state Constitution, which requires
one-fourth of all occupation taxes to go to public schools. The TEA
is also asking the court to consider whether the tax violates
Texas’ free speech provisions, which it says are broader than those
provided by the First Amendment.