Prostitution tax defeated

Nevada politicians yesterday defeated a proposed prostitution tax that had won support from brothel owners and working ladies willing to do their part to ease the state's US$3 billion ($5.1 billion) budget crisis.

Nevada, one of only two US states that allow some prostitution, is reeling from a deep economic recession. State Senator Bob Coffin, a Democrat, proposed levying a US$5-per-customer service tax on patrons of 20 legal brothels operating in rural Nevada, all of them outside Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County, where prostitution remains outlawed.