Whereas most industries complain about getting taxed too much, Nevada’s brothels are actually asking to pay taxes. The 25 legal brothels in the state currently generate a $50-million-a-year industry that pays significant amounts of tax to the rural counties in which they operate, but only a $100 business license fee to the state. The industry’s lobbyist, George Flint, director of the Nevada Brothel Association explains that, “It’s not going to make a hell of a lot of money, but we would be happy to pay our fair share.” However, Flint also acknowledges that the tax effort is “something of an insurance policy” against the state legislature’s deciding one day to do away with the industry. Prostitution is only legal in the smaller Nevada counties, nowhere near the state’s two biggest cities, Las Vegas and Reno. This is another incentive for the tax request, as Flint hopes he can show the legislature how much money the state is losing by not regulating and taxing the booming illegal prostitution industry in Las Vegas. State Senator Bob Coffin, a Las Vegas Democrat and the incoming chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee, said he was willing to hold a hearing on the matter in the coming legislative session, which starts next month. Mayor Oscar B. Goodman of Las Vegas, a longtime advocate of having legal brothels in the city, said that most travelers already believe that prostitution is legal throughout the state and that “we’re missing tens of million of dollars that could be used for the school system, to keep jail guards employed, to provide mental health services.”