The Nation: Sex Tax

Like most other states, Rhode Island is in financial trouble. A proposed personal income tax, the state's first, might help, but it has also promoted general rancor. Democratic State Legislator Bernard Gladstone whimsically hit upon an idea to solve the fiscal crisis. He introduced a bill to abolish the income tax and instead exact a $2 levy upon every act of sexual intercourse performed in the state. Banking on either gallantry, male chauvinism or both, Gladstone suggested that only men should pay, and on a voluntary basis. Otherwise, he speculated, tax inspectors might find the law difficult to enforce. By some inscrutable formula, Gladstone announced that for every male Rhode Islander, his tax would bring in $2 a week.

Before long the outcry against Gladstone's "bad taste" was loud enough to force him to withdraw his modest proposal. Which may be a shame. As things go in local and state government, Gladstone's sex tax is not only original, but, with proper promotion, might have become more productive than lotteries.