Should Texas Lawmakers Do Away With the Pole Tax? [POLL]

According to the Texas Tribune, former Rep. Jim Pitts is now lobbying for the Texas Entertainment Association aka strip clubs. Pitts, who helped write the pole tax into law is now part of a team attempting to get rid of the tax or to reduce it. The "pole tax" is a $5 fee that every customer has to pay when entering a strip club.

The money was originally earmarked to fund state sexual abuse programs and health insurance for Texans with low incomes.

Pitts helped get the pole tax into state law, working with then-Rep. Ellen Cohen, D-Houston, on the original version. He reminded the trade group about that — and the fact that he successfully sued one of their clubs after his wife was killed by a drunk driver in 2004. That driver had been drinking at a strip club in Dallas before the accident.

Neither he nor the Texas Entertainment Association wished to be quoted.

The state’s pole tax has been tangled up in litigation for years, but the appeals are now exhausted and the courts have decided that Texas’ strip club fee is legal.

But the Texas Legislature never rests: State Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, has filed a bill that would lower the fee to $2 (House Bill 1785) and another that would eliminate it altogether (House Bill 1805).

Should lawmakers do away with the so-called pole tax? Let us know in today's KFYO Poll of the Day.