DENVER—A get-tough bill that focuses on people who pay for sex, not prostitutes and pimps, cleared its first test Monday in Colorado.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-0 to raise minimum fines for sex customers to $5,000, with the money going to a statewide, scared-straight-type program for first offenders who solicit adult prostitutes.

Currently the crime is classified as a petty offense and in some places carries a penalty of just $75—less than littering.

Supporters say dramatically higher fines are needed because cash-strapped police forces too often pass over men soliciting sex, leaving the demand for sex workers in place.

Marian Hatcher, a former prostitute who helped start an anti-john school in Chicago, told the committee the prostitution problem won’t go away as long as customers aren’t dealt with seriously.

“Some think they’re helping women. Many think there’s a rite of passage. Many think women enjoy this experience, which is untrue,” said Hatcher, who now works for the Cook County (Ill.) Sheriff’s Department.

She works with the county’s diversion program for johns, with money from fines going to treatment for johns and former sex workers.

Several big cities have similar diversion programs aimed at men who buy sex, but Colorado would be the nation’s first statewide network of such diversion programs. Texas lawmakers are considering a similar proposal this year.

“What we’re trying to accomplish here is to reduce the demand for the commercial sex trade, as opposed to just going after the pimps and the prostitutes,” said state Senate President Brandon Shaffer, a Democrat and sponsor of the bill.

Shaffer initially sought a minimum fine of $10,000, but that was halved after some on the committee feared a $10,000 fine would be so steep that it would simply inspire more suspected johns to fight the charges in court, weakening the intent of raising money for treatment.

Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg, who suggested lower fines, also said judges, not lawmakers, should determine the appropriate fine.

“When justice is defined in dollars, it’s a very inequitable punishment—for some it is a sting, for others it is a bankruptcy,” Lundberg said.

The committee settled on allowing judges to set fines between $5,000 and $10,000.

“I don’t want to give courts so much latitude that they don’t hammer these guys,” Shaffer said.

A former nude dancer who says she advocates for sex workers opposed the bill.

Billie Jackson of Denver, who believes prostitution should be made legal, said higher fines could backfire and simply be “very shaming for people.”

“This could be done different; it could be done better,” Jackson said.

Two police vice squad officers testified that higher fines were needed to fund any serious attempt to reduce demand.

Denver police Sgt. Daniel Steele said an estimated $60 million a year is spent on prostitution in the Denver area. He said that while the department makes about 375 prostitution arrests a year, it makes only about 150 john arrests a year, meaning too many customers are avoiding punishment.

Steele also said many prostitutes have up to 10 clients a day, and police departments don’t have the resources to chase customers.

“It’s not going to be the be-all, end-all, but it sure would help,” Steele said of the higher fines.

If passed into law, the bill would not change penalties for repeat offenders or those soliciting underage prostitution, which already carries much more serious penalties.

The bill also leaves soliciting sex as a petty offense. Still, anti-prostitution advocates say the higher fines would send an important message that the state considers customers, not just sex workers, a major part of the problem.

“Unless we look at the demand side, and have people really think about the serious consequences of this problem, then we’ll never solve it,” said Beth Klein, an attorney who advocates for anti-trafficking measures and john schools. “Johns need to pay for the crime that they participate in.”