Not paying enough for dildos and slings?

Sex supplies and entertainment would get slapped with an 18.5-percent sales tax if a bill introduced today by state representative Mark Miloscia (D-30) passes. Specifically, the tax would apply to pornography, cable television services, telephone services, computer programs, and the mostly broadly defined item: sex paraphernalia.

To put money and products into more tangible terms, I headed over to adult-entertainment paraphernalia emporium The Crypt. The most expensive item on the shelves was the Violet Wand, which sends an electrified purple arc from a metal stick to your tender flesh. Cost: $599.99. This bill, if passed, would stack on an additional $110.99 in taxes. A high-quality dildo in the back—$149.99—would jump up by $27.74. And take this handsome sling, currently $339.99, which would increase by $62.89:

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But Miloscia says the money would go toward a worthy cause. General Assistance Unemployable, a short-term funding stream for people in dire medical need, is in jeopardy. This tax would help save it. “The purpose of this bill is to find a legitimate taxing source that the people in the state and my district would support,” says Miloscia. “If it does cause harm, it will be to industries people don’t care about.”

“Of course people are going to care about it. It’s like raising the prices at all the bars,” says Elliet Tryfonopoulos, an employee at The Crypt. She characterized sex entertainment as a popular “hobby” that supports businesses in the state. “I think this [bill] would definitely decrease the volume of customer traffic.”

However, Miloscia doesn’t see damage in pushing adult entertainment businesses out of the state. “You’re not going to have me defending adult paraphernalia or entertainment,” he says. “I don’t see what good that does to society.”