A Nevada lawmaker is suggesting that Prostitution be allowed in Reno and Las Vegas and taxed so to ease the state’s financial crisis. Currently, prostitution is banned in counties with over 400,000 people.
“If everything is on the table — and both sides say it is — then why not talk about expanding prostitution? I can’t imagine the Neon Bunny Ranch on the Strip, though I’m sure it would make money,” said Eric Herzik, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada at Reno.
State Senator Bob Coffin also wants to discuss taxing the legal brothels, strip clubs and escort services.
According to the Las Vegas Sun, Coffin had this explanation:
Only “the most naive person on the planet would believe there’s no prostitution going on in the urban areas,” Coffin said. “It’s going on now unregulated and unsafe.
“I have not decided about whether or not I’d support the legalization and control of it in urban areas. But I think it’s an idea worth entertaining.”
In the past, Nevada’s sex industry has gone before the state legislature asking to be taxed. That may seem odd. Yet some brothel owners feel that if they are taxed, then there is less likelihood prostitution will be banned.
“What are we going to say? That we don’t want your tax dollars? How do you look a gift horse in the mouth when we’re hurting so badly?” asked David Damore, associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
In the past, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goldman has suggested legalizing prostitution as a way to raise funds for downtown redevelopment. In 2004, he suggested building a “Little Amsterdam.” The idea did not go over well.
Despite being the only state with legalized prostitution, many Nevadans are adamantly against it as either immoral or a violation against women.
