Porn-tax plan dealt swift death in Washington Legislature

OLYMPIA — For Rep. Mark Miloscia, levying an 18 ½ percent sales tax against the porn industry seemed like an easy way to save a program for the poor and disabled from getting axed by the state.

But the reaction from the public was swift and severe. Opponents — some of whom claimed the tax would violate constitutional rights and destroy their sex lives — jammed Miloscia's phone lines for hours before he finally ordered his staff to shut off the phones last week.

E-mails blasting the tax proposal piled up, and radio talk-show hosts hounded him for interviews.

Though House Democrats quickly killed the measure this week out of legal concerns about the tax, the Federal Way Democrat garnered national attention for joining the ranks of lawmakers across the country who are trying to solve budget shortfalls by taxing adult entertainment.

"I was initially excited, maybe a little naive," said Miloscia, known for his religious beliefs and passion for helping the poor. "It was a tax for a good cause."

Miloscia suggested the higher sales tax for Playboy and other adult magazines, as well as pornographic photographs, movies, videos, cable-television services, telephone services, audiotapes, computer programs and paraphernalia.

The money brought in would have gone toward the General Assistance-Unemployable (GAU) program, which provides cash and medical benefits to people with physical or mental disabilities that make them temporarily unemployable. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed cutting GAU to help plug the state's massive budget shortfall.

Last year, lawmakers in California proposed a 25 percent tax on that state's several-billion-dollar sex industry. The measure died in committee. This month, New York Gov. David Paterson proposed taxing pornography downloaded from the Internet.

Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, who chairs the House Finance Committee, refused to give Miloscia's bill a hearing when he realized the thorny questions it raised.

Hunter said that taxing adult-entertainment paraphernalia at a different rate than other products would violate an agreement that Washington has with 21 states setting a consistent system for taxing goods. He also feared the bill would turn legislators into morality police who would have to decide what is pornography that should be taxed at a higher rate and what isn't.

"I have to set a set of rules that are clear, and I don't know how to do that," Hunter said.

After a week of calls and e-mails from adult-entertainment supporters across the country, Miloscia seems relieved that the attention is dying off.

He was unnerved by the fact that people were more concerned about an adult-entertainment tax than bills he sponsored to ensure that state contract workers earn a decent wage, or to improve government ethics and integrity through outside scrutiny and evaluation.

Leanne Horn, Miloscia's legislative assistant, said she shielded him from the worst calls — including one interviewer who wanted him to go toe-to-toe on his radio show with Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis.

Miloscia, 50, said he's supported the idea of taxing pornography and adult-entertainment paraphernalia since 2004, when a similar tax proposal died in the state Senate.

The former B-52 bomber pilot said he left a career with the Air Force in 1990 after having a religious reawakening that prompted him to seek a job where he could help those less fortunate. In 1991, he became director of contract services at Goodwill Industries in Tacoma.

"I had a religious epiphany," said Miloscia, a Catholic. "I realized that Jesus wanted me to love my neighbors and love my enemies."

At Goodwill, Miloscia worked with "people McDonald's wouldn't even hire" — the clientele the GAU program was designed to aid. "Our mission was to vocationally train people to get a job and out-place them whether they were disabled or if they were homeless."

When he's not in the Legislature, Miloscia now works as a substitute teacher in the Federal Way School District and is a member of St. Vincent De Paul Parish in Federal Way.

Jennifer Shaw, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, wasn't surprised that Miloscia's bill died so soon.

"It's a tax on speech. It's pretty clear under the First Amendment it is censorship, unconstitutional regulation of speech," Shaw said. "We have taxes on liquor and cigarettes, so I can understand why there would be an interest in a tax on pornography. The difference between cigarettes and pornography is [freedom of] speech."

Even though Miloscia got an earful about his bill, he hasn't ruled out another try during a later legislative session.

But next time, he said, he'll be sure to find supporters outside the Legislature to back him up before introducing the bill.

Jennifer Sullivan: 360-236-8267 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com