ATLANTA, Ga.—When Georgia voters go to the polls (which they can do as early as October 17), one of the ballot measures they'll be asked to approve will be the "Georgia Additional Penalties for Sex Crimes to Fund Services for Sexually Exploited Children," which would allow the amending of Georgia's Constitution to target adult entertainment establishments with a new tax, supposedly to benefit children who have been sexually trafficked.
Ballot Question #2 reads, "Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow additional penalties for criminal cases in which a person is adjudged guilty of keeping a place of prostitution, pimping, pandering, pandering by compulsion, solicitation of sodomy, masturbation for hire, trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, or sexual exploitation of children and to allow assessments on adult entertainment establishments to fund the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund to pay for care and rehabilitative and social services for individuals in this state who have been or may be sexually exploited? [Emphasis added]
According to the measure's sponsor, State Sen. Renee Unterman, who was recently featured on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee as the person most responsible for cutting the state's funding for the processing of rape kits, "It's an amendment that creates a permanent indelible fund that sets up money for therapeutic services for children who have been sexually exploited, specifically sex trafficking of children."
There's just one problem: No adult entertainment business in the state has been charged with having sexually trafficked any children, nor for having exploited them. Not stores selling adult books and videos, not adult nightclubs, nothing. The state might better levy a tax on libraries and daycare centers, where instances of sexually exploiting children are far more likely to occur than in adult businesses.
Of course, Unterman had a response for such objections.
"These adult entertainment businesses, they give nothing back to the community, absolutely nothing," Unterman told WMAZ-TV News. "As a matter of fact they're takers, they create crime around their locations. They're in the business of selling sex. So, why shouldn't they have some skin in the game, literally?"
Hopefully, Georgia voters will give Unterman an answer to her rhetorical question.
