HARRISBURG -- A tax on sex?

State Sen. Jane Orie will soon ask senators to call for a study by a legislative research group on whether a tax should be imposed on sexually explicit, adult-oriented businesses. The sex tax, or porn tax as others are calling it, could be a 10 percent levy on the admission price to an adult-oriented business, or a tax on the sale of food and drink at such businesses.

The McCandless Republican, a former Allegheny County prosecutor, said some other states have started doing so. In 2004, Utah "imposed a 10 percent tax on admissions and sales of food and drinks at a sexually oriented business," she said. Utah also has a 10 percent tax on fees charged by escort services, which provide companions, usually female, often charging several hundred dollars.

"More recently," she said, "Texas passed a statute providing for a $5 admissions fee to enter adult-oriented facilities, in order to provide revenue for sexual assault prevention and response programs."

Ms. Orie said she normally doesn't favor new taxes. But revenue from a tax on adult businesses would be specifically targeted to help such agencies as Pittsburgh Action Against Rape and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which, she said, have to deal with "the negative secondary effects" caused by sex-oriented businesses, including strip clubs, escort services, phone sex lines, massage parlors and stores that sell X-rated videos, publications, sex toys and marital aids.

In the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Yellow Book, two dozen businesses are listed under escort services.

Ms. Orie said studies have shown that such businesses "can have an adverse effect on crime rates," especially rape, assault and domestic violence, and can lower property values and hinder economic development in communities.

"Many states and communities are exploring taxes on these establishments to offset these negative impacts," she said.

Ms. Orie said revenue from a porn tax wouldn't go into state coffers to use for transportation, education, environmental protection or other usual state expenses. She thinks such a tax could withstand an expected legal challenge from adult businesses if the revenue is narrowly targeted to groups like Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

When senators resume session this month, Ms. Orie will ask for a study by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, a research arm of the Legislature. If senators agree, the committee would "review studies regarding the secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses [and] the actions taken to address those effects."

The committee would find out how many adult-oriented businesses the state has and how much revenue might be raised by various levies. The study also could recommend whether the state or municipalities impose such a tax and what groups should receive the revenue. The study could take six to eight months, she said.

Vanessa Fuchs, owner of Sassy Sensations, a women's lingerie and massage oil boutique in Robinson and Castle Shannon, said such a tax would be unfair.

"It will be tough to define what an adult business is,'' she said. "If you go to Sears and get a personal massager, is that an adult business? Is a drug store that sells Trojans? Where does it stop?"

She said the Legislature should do things to encourage businesses to stay here, not make it harder for them.

Pittsburgh lawyer Peter Georgiades, who represented the X-rated Garden Theatre on the North Side in a seven-year legal battle with Pittsburgh, said he can't speak for all adult businesses, but thinks many of them "would be happy to collect and pay over [to the state] such a tax, if it would mean they would be left alone and allowed to conduct their business."

Any additional taxes or fees would be passed along to the patrons of such establishments, he said.

Mr. Georgiades disputed Ms. Orie's claims of "negative secondary effects" of adult-oriented businesses.

"The senator apparently equates adult uses with rape, and I haven't seen any such evidence,'' he said. In the 1930s, he said, one reason that marijuana use was made illegal was "because of an unfounded assumption that marijuana led to rape." He also disputed claims that adult-oriented businesses cause blight.

Ms. Orie said there are studies from New York City; Los Angeles; Austin, Texas; and other places showing "compelling evidence" that adult-oriented businesses increase crime and lower property values.