Senate Majority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, says strip club owners who make a fortune from dancers should help subsidize the obstetricians and gynecologists who provide those women with medical services.
She told the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee strip club owners now escape almost all forms of state taxation. The dancers are independent contractors so, she said, the businesses don't pay Nevada's per-employee business tax. She said club owners also escape unemployment taxes, worker-compensation insurance and other costs paid by businessmen who have employees on the payroll.
"They don't make any contribution to the state," said Titus.
She said she wants to raise $3 million to set up a fund that would be used to help obstetricians and gynecologists pay medical malpractice insurance coverage.
"It's called women helping women," said Titus.
The tax, she said, would be calculated on the square footage of the topless club. Some are huge, like the 66,000-square-foot Sapphire Club in Las Vegas.
The proposal would be an amendment to her medical malpractice bill designed to limit premium increases and prohibit confidentiality in certain settlements involving malpractice cases.