DENVER, CO — Colorado has joined the burgeoning list of U.S. states that want to tax adult entertainment in order to fund various sexual-abuse causes.Late last week Republican State Rep. Amy Stephens said she intends to revise House Bill 1086, which as she submitted it would impose a 99-cent surcharge on all in-room movies at lodging establishments. Instead of applying to every hotel or motel pay-per-view order, Stephens said she believes the excise tax’s purpose would be served better by applying the fee only to X-rated movies.

The revenues would be used to fund Colorado’s 14 children’s advocacy centers that counsel childhood victims of sexual abuse and assist police and prosecutors in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

The fund’s goal is a laudable one, supporting as it would Colorado’s portion of a 600-center nationwide network that provides services to the youngest victims of a particularly heinous crime. Stephens’ rationale for the tax, however, isn’t quite so noble: She lays the blame for child sexual abuse at the feet of the adult industry.

“Most of our sexual predators in prison are addicted to pornography,” she told the Denver Post.

The bill likely will be challenged on constitutional grounds if it is passed, according to the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

“Adult entertainment is just that,” Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado told the Post. “Whether you like it or not, adults have the right to view it.”