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Strip club bill advances in Missouri

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JEFFERSON CITY | Legislation placing far-reaching restrictions on adult-entertainment businesses in Missouri won preliminary approval in the state Senate on Thursday and may continue on a legislative fast track thanks to a federal investigation.

Sen. Matt Bartle presented the bill on the Senate floor just two days after he appeared before a federal grand jury in Kansas City to answer questions about the defeat of a nearly identical bill in 2005.

To become law, legislation approved Thursday must be voted on once more in the Senate, passed through the House and ultimately signed by the governor. But if successful, it would represent a sea change for adult-oriented businesses. Among the provisions:

•Nudity would be banned in strip clubs.

•Semi-nude dancers would have to stay at least six feet away from and not touch patrons.

•Adult businesses would have to close between midnight and 6 a.m. and could not sell alcohol.

•Adult businesses could not be opened within 1,000 feet of a school, church, day-care facility, library, park, residence or another adult business.

If upheld in court, the law probably would shut down strip clubs and adult bookstores, said attorney Dick Bryant, who represents about a dozen adult entertainment businesses in the Kansas City area.

“But I have every confidence that the courts will find the same problems that existed last time around,” he said. “Once again, the First Amendment will protect what it's designed to protect.”

Bryant said that if passed into law, the legislation could wind up costing the state millions in lost tax revenue and in compensation payments for forcing the businesses to close.

“I guess if taxpayers truly want to spend $1 million a pop for getting rid of stores, more power to them,” he said.

The proximity of Bartle's grand jury testimony to the Senate debate was a coincidence, the Lee's Summit Republican insisted, although he acknowledged that it might be a beneficial one for his bill.

“I'm not going to deny that the environment right now is opportune for placing this legislation before the legislature,” he said. “But it was not coordinated.”

Bartle initially filed the bill in December and it was passed out of committee early last week, before his appearance Tuesday before the grand jury was publicized.

Coincidental or not, Capitol observers said that the ongoing investigation will make passage more likely of what is already a politically perilous bill to oppose during an election year.

“Because of the grand jury investigation, I hope Senator Bartle's bill will have a much easier time this session,” said House Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt, a Blue Springs Republican. “And it's my sense that it will.”

The lone dissenter in the Senate was Kansas City Democrat Jolie Justus, who first attempted to exempt Kansas City from the legislation's restrictions, then voiced the only audible vote against it.

Justus cited Kansas City's local ordinances regulating adult businesses and invoked the right of cities and counties to manage their own affairs as reasons for the exemption.

“(Cities) have shown it is possible to self-regulate on these issues,” she said.

Justus also echoed Bryant's concern that the new regulations could force strip clubs and other adult businesses to close, which would have economic ramifications for the city and statewide.

Adult businesses in Missouri employ 3,000 people, she pointed out, and many of those could be forced out of their jobs by Bartle's bill.

Thu, Feb. 04, 2010

Read more: Strip club bill advances in Missouri - KansasCity.com