Porn Tax Dies in Seattle

A proposal to tax adult entertainment products and services to fund unemployment and welfare benefits is dead in Seattle.

The porn tax bill seems to be unconstitutional because it trespasses on other laws simplifying the Washington state tax code. Separately, a tax based on content is just unconstitutional.

One concerned business was not a bar but 'The Erotic Bakery' in Wallingford, WA, which supplies breast-and-penis-shaped cakes, and the like for bachelor and bachelorette parties. They were worried all their products would be taxed, for each organ it displayed on it. Not to worry. The evidence did not stand up to constitutional muster.

Still, the Adult Video News, which picked up this story stumbled upon another proposal for the Washington November state ballot initiative, one Measure No. 1040, which "concerns a supreme ruler of the universe."

This measure would require state government not to use public funds or property for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe," the initiative's abstract says, "including but not limited to appropriations for displays, textbooks, scientific endeavors, instruction, and research projects. The measure would provide that no person shall be questioned based on their personal values, beliefs, or opinions regarding the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe." So much for science.

Is it a little too wet in Seattle? Everyone's brain becoming damp? Washington has initiatives just like Florida. So now the proponent needs just the signatures of 241,152 more crazy voters to get on the ballot, and there aren't that many stupid people in the state, are there?