Illinois strip clubs could face $5 'skin tax' : Bill's sponsor wants money to go toward rape crisis counseling

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Illinois already charges so-called sin taxes on smokes, booze and casino gambling. Now state lawmakers are thinking about imposing a $5 skin tax to get into strip clubs.

Club owners are in an uproar, arguing that the tax might put smaller strip joints out of business and throw dancers, bartenders, bouncers and valet attendants out of work. They worry that some customers already are fed up with admission fees, let alone taxes on top.

"We wouldn't want that," said Tiffany Winkler, manager of the Chicago club Pink Monkey.

The Admiral Theatre is "strongly opposed to the proposed pole tax," said Sam Cecola, the North Side club's director of operations.

But state Sen. Toi Hutchinson said she is sponsoring the bill to raise money for rape crisis counseling. Businesses that profit from selling booze and skin should help aid victims of sex crimes, she said.

Should we put a $5 tax on all universities that assign books with Karl Marx in the title? You know, to make it up to the victims of socialism living and dead?