SACRAMENTO — The state Attorney General’s office yesterday posted a title and summary report for the proposed ballot initiative over new porn production rules.
The California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act would, if enacted, punish adult film producers with levy harsh civil fines for noncompliance of a mandatory condom law and its regulations.
The proposed ballot initiative also would cost the state "tens of millions of dollars" through loss of tax revenue, according to a report from the Legislative Analyst's Office, the California Legislature's non-partisan fiscal and policy advisory.
The office earlier this month suggested that the proposed initiative could result in the migration of the adult industry from California or push it underground.
It also said that the loss of tax revenue could be slightly offset by lower health services costs temporarily if the measure results in fewer STD and HIV infections.
Voters statewide would decide the ballot proposal in November 2016.
Adult entertainment trade group Free Speech Coalition and its CEO, Diane Duke, have been adamantly opposed to the proposal, as well as more than a half-dozen other public and policy moves through the years made by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its president, Michael Weinstein.
"The state stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue, and thousands of vital jobs for what is essentially a one-man moral crusade,” Duke said earlier this month. “This analysis supports what we've been saying for years. It's costly and wasteful and would ultimately hurt performers.”
Yesterday’s posting of the proposed ballot initiative’s language says the following:
The Attorney General of California has prepared the following title and summary of the chief purpose and points of the proposed measure: ADULT FILMS.
CONDOMS. HEALTH REQUIREMENTS. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires performers in adult films to use condoms during filming of sexual intercourse. Requires producers of adult films to pay for performer vaccinations, testing, and medical examinations related to sexually transmitted infections. Requires producers to obtain state health license at beginning of filming and to post condom requirement at film sites. Imposes liability on producers for violations, on certain distributors, on performers if they have a financial interest in the violating film, and on talent agents who knowingly refer performers to noncomplying producers. Permits state, performers, or any state resident to enforce violations. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Potentially reduced state and local tax revenue of millions or tens of millions of dollars per year. Likely state costs of a few million dollars annually to administer the law. Possible ongoing net costs or savings for state and local health and human services programs.
