Measure B is Bad For Los Angeles County Businesses and Taxpayers
Measure B, funded and placed on the Nov. 6th ballot by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, would require the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to license and permit adult movie productions in the county and require performers to wear condoms and create an unworkable system of on-set inspections and enforcement by county personnel. The county estimates initial start-up costs for the program to be in excess of $300,000, but acknowledges it does not know if permitting fees would be adequate to fund the program’s long-term costs.
Does Measure B promote public health?
- According to the California Dept. of Public Health, from June 30, 2008 to June 30, 2011, there were 6,447 new cases of HIV reported in Los Angeles County, but only two were adult performers who did not contract the disease on-set. Since 2004, there have been no documented cases of HIV transmission on an adult entertainment set.
- The costs to maintain the inspection system and training of government inspectors takes valuable resources and funds away from a county healthcare system already straining from demands of an uninsured and unemployed county population.
Does Measure B help the local economy?
- The adult entertainment industry contributes an estimated $1 billion in economic and tax benefit to the region, as well as employs over 10,000 people through its affiliated businesses and vendors.
- After Measure B qualified for the ballot, adult entertainment companies were openly wooed by neighboring states to relocate with offers of tax credits, redevelopment funding and attractive infrastructure improvements.
- With an unemployment rate throughout the county at 12 percent, four percentage points higher than the national average, the county and local cities cannot afford the loss of up to 10,000 jobs and billions in tax revenue and related economic activity.
Who else opposes Measure B?
- The No on Government Waste Committee represents a broad coalition ranging from entertainment companies, small businesses, community organizations, healthcare advocates and adult entertainment performers.
- Important business groups such as the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, representing businesses throughout the San Fernando Valley, and the San Gabriel Valley Legislative Coalition of Chambers, representing sixteen chambers in the San Gabriel Valley, have joined in their opposition to Measure B.