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SB32 – BAD BUSINESS FOR
MISSOURI'S BUSINESSES
On February 2nd, 2005, the Missouri Senate's Judiciary and Civil & Criminal Jurisprudence Committee sent Senate Bill 32 to the full Senate bearing a “do pass” recommendation.
The purported goal of SB 32 is to “regulate sexually-oriented businesses.” However, the bill's sponsor, Senator Matt Bartle (R-Lee's Summit), has made no secret of the fact that his true goal in introducing the bill is to drive such enterprises out of business altogether: "The goal of the bill is to make Missouri inhospitable for these businesses ..."
The Missouri Democratic Freedom Caucus opposes passage of SB 32 for a number of reasons.
- SB 32 is an anti-business bill. While its immediate target is “sexually-oriented” businesses, it would establish a dangerous precedent under which future legislatures could impose ruinous regulation on disfavored enterprises for the purpose of closing them down.
- SB 32 incorporates ruinous taxation measures aimed not at the collection of revenue, but at the destruction of a specific class of businesses. This kind of “social engineering by taxation” is subversive of Missouri's future economic growth.
- SB 32 clearly violates the protections which the US and Missouri Constitutions provide to speech and expression.
However, the introduction of SB 32 also offers Senate Democrats – and their House counterparts, should the bill get as far as consideration in the legislature's other body – a fine opportunity to demonstrate our party's commitment to freedom, fairness and wise political leadership.
In opposing SB 32, Democratic legislators are standing up for Missouri's businesses against onerous regulation and unfair taxation, a position which has traditionally been a Republican rhetorical stakeout. Additionally, opposition to SB 32 continues the proud Democratic tradition of standing up for the civil liberties of Missourians, whether or not those Missourians patronize “adult businesses.”
Resources
SB
32 on the Senate web site
http://tinyurl.com/5z3ut
St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on SB 32
Missouri Democratic Freedom Caucus
5207 Swift Ave.
St. Joseph, MO 64504
816-238-8265
POLICY BRIEFS is published periodically by the Missouri Democratic Freedom Caucus. Each edition is emailed, faxed or made available on the World Wide Web to Missouri's Democratic Party legislators, officeholders and other leadership, as well as to Missouri's voters.
The purposes of the Missouri Democratic Freedom Caucus are:
• To serve as the Missouri affiliate of the Democratic Freedom Caucus, a libertarian caucus within the Democratic Party.
• To support the election and re-election of pro-freedom Democrats to public office at all levels of government.
• To support Democratic officeholders with policy advice, volunteer efforts on behalf of pro-freedom Democratic initiatives and other work.
• To inform Missourians of their representatives' performance and of policy initiatives and their impacts via voter guides, legislator ratings, op-ed articles and other public information activities.
Mike Bozarth, interim chair:
Newsletter:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modfc-news
Discussion Group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modfc-talk