by Rog of RogReviews.com
comments/history of bill AB2914
According to Shelley Lubben’s MySpace page, the insane porn tax proposed by Assemblyman Charles Calderon has made it out of his Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee by a vote of 5-4. As you may recall, Shelley and some other disgruntled ex-porn stars and prostitutes testified in favor of the bill which will tack on 25% (Read that three times slowly and let it sink in) on gross receipts of adult sales. (DVDs, Magazines, drinks in strip clubs, so on, so on.)
I’m not going to get TOO upset, because a 5-4 vote in committee means it barely scraped by and it has not a snowball’s chance in Santa Monica of making it through the entire Assembly. That is not to say that we shouldn’t be worried and upset. Shelley and her friends are celebrating because A. They think the money raised by this tax will go to help "victims" of adult entertainment. If she is actually silly enough to believe that then she should probably do a little digging. And B. Because they want to ban all porn. All this talk of victims and paying their fair share is, excuse the expression, complete and utter monkey crap.
I would like to thank Shelley for posting a list of the five nutters who actually voted for this unfair, illegal and unsound money grab. Unfair? Yes, targeting a legal product because some people think it is "bad for people" is unfair. After all, ice cream is bad for me. Some people would argue that religion is bad for people as well. I doubt if Shelley and the misguided sheeple giving her "me too" comments would care to have their churches fork over 25% because some priests decided that Michael Jackson has the right idea on human sexuality. Illegal? Selective taxation is not likely to stand challenges from higher courts. Especially since there is no definitive proof that adult business directly causes harm. Unsound? Yes, bad bad economics. Tax porn 25% at every step of the way in California and the multi-billion dollar industry leaves for Florida or Nevada or Texas. So instead of bringing IN money, the tax will cost the state money. This of course fits Shelley’s real agenda just fine but probably won’t sit well with the loony socialists in the Assembly.
So here they are folks. The fire who voted against freedom and for unfair taxation are as follows. Charles Calderon (D), Juan Arambula (D), Mike Eng (D), Mike Feuer (D) and Mary Hayashi (D). The four who voted for freedom and against the illegal money grab are Chuck DeVore (R), Fiona Ma (D), George A Plescia (R) and Anthony Adams (R). Once again the numbers are amazing. The Dems voted 5-1 in favor. This makes half sense. They are all for taxing everything under the sun, but they are supposed to our best defense against the conservatives. The Republicans voted 3-0 against the tax. They are fighting the tax increases on every front, but can’t be too happy to come down on the side of the porn industry.
Where do these folks come from? The bad guys? Calderon is from the 58th District-Downey. Arambula 31st- Fresno, Eng 49th Monterey Park, Feuer 42nd- Beverly Hills and Hayaski 18th- Alameda. And on our side? Devore 70th- Newport Beach, Ma 12th- San Francisco, Plescia 75th- Escondido (My old district) and Adams 59th- San Bernardino.
If you live in California please visit the State Assembly Roster Page find your district and send an email to your assembly member. Let them know that you oppose AB2914 and ask them to vote against it.
Oddly enough, Shelley and I share one thing. The desire to pray that the Assembly does the RIGHT thing. We just disagree on what the right thing is.
Thank your for listening.