Nevada Considers Taxing the Oldest Profession

Thirty years ago, Nevada gave rural counties the option to legalize prostitution. The brothels are licensed and regulated locally, but have never been taxed by the state. Now, hard times have led to a budget shortfall of $2.8 billion. At a legislative hearing yesterday in Carson City, prostitutes and brothel owners supported a bill to tax sex acts at $5 each. But four of seven committee members had already indicated their opposition and one prostitution researcher said such a tax would be “an act of legislative pimping.” Historian Guy Rocha is a former Nevada State Archivist who has also studied legalized prostitution.