A recent story reported that a substantially modified version of a controversial bill regulating exotic dance clubs has passed the Ohio State Senate.
The story said that in its original form, the bill would have broadened adult business regulations, creating strict statewide rules with 6-foot distance requirements between dancers and patrons, as well as 11 p.m. limits on nude dancing. The original version would have also extended regulatory powers to townships.
The original bill, the report in continued, had been set for a vote in the Senate until Phil Burress of the Cincinnati-based nonprofit censorship organization, Citizens for Community Values (CCV), shot himself in the foot with some over-the-top political organizing.
The story in the Columbus Dispatch said that the revised version of the bill removes the statewide regulations wording from the bill and instead beefs up the ability of townships to regulate the businesses by promising help from the Ohio attorney general if the townships face legal battles. Neil S. Clark, the lobbyist for the dance clubs said he was a “happy camper” over the new version.
"It’s a decent bill now. It’s a fair bill," Clark told the Columbus Dispatch. "The owners really didn’t want the statewide standards, which were vicious."
Jim Siegel’s story reported that Burress said he felt betrayed by Senate President Bill M. Harris, (R-Ashland). "If the term sold down the river has ever applied, this is it," Burress said. "They are giving strip clubs what they wanted. Obviously, this was drafted by the strip club and porn industry."
The Ohio House, the story concluded, still must give final concurrence to the bill. The bill sponsor, Representative Linda Reidelbach, (R-Columbus) said that she had not yet decided whether she would ask her colleagues to approve the bill or send it to a joint conference committee for further work with the Senate.
Portions of this courtesy of the Free Speech X-Press, the weekly newsletter of the Free Speech Coalition. More info at www.freespeechcoalition.com.
