Talk about some strange incentives. A business is clamoring for the state to tax their services, and the budget-constrained state turns them down:

Nevada, suffering from a $3 billion budget crisis, passed on a chance to raise at least $2 million a year. Yesterday, lawmakers said “No Thanks” to a $5, er, service tax, for duties performed by the state’s few legalized brothels.

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The tax created an eclectic opposition: Religious conservatives and feminists, Republicans and Democrats. It also made for strange, tip-toed responses. Sen. Terry Care (D-Las Vegas) said, “[t]here is an implication there that the business takes a toll, at least on some women” [Italics added]. Sen. Mike McGinness, (R-Fallon) said he voted “nay” because he doesn’t believe in taxing services. For Sen. Maggie Carlton ( D-Las Vegas) voting for the tax could have sent the wrong message to parents and daughters.

So brothels want legitimacy, and legislators are either moralists, or too afraid to pop their cherry.