Remember this number: 2103, as in House Bill 2103.

Federal Way’s own State Rep. Mark Miloscia is the sponsor to this bill. It would save a program that Gov. Christine Gregoire has put on the chopping block, called General Assistance for the Unemployable (GAU). The program provides health care and a $339 stipend to people who are considered unemployable, mostly due to mental illness. The controversy arises on how this program will be funded, or saved, which is where HB 2103 comes into play.

The bill would add an 18.5 percent tax on one vice that has escaped our state’s propensity for heavy sin taxes: Pornography.

Our liquor and cigarette taxes are among the highest in the country, as are many non-sin taxes, such as property taxes and fuel taxes. We are taxed for dying, for living, for owning property, for working, for spending, for saving, for driving — and the list goes on.

This is why the response to Miloscia’s proposal by state porn peddlers is laughable. Laughable to the extent that they claim protection under “free speech,” but worrisome to me that our understanding of the precious First Amendment has degraded to such a frivolous level, no thanks to liberal courts and the ACLU.

The First Amendment is a foundational block to our republic, guaranteeing the freedom of expression, freedom of religious affiliation and speech and the freedom to lawfully assemble (presumably with the intent to organize a protest). These principles were written into our rights as a radical and new concept of self-governance that, prior to 1776, the world had not seen.

Self-governance requires that for people to remain politically free, they must be free to petition, protest, advocate and organize such advocacy to ensure government accountability to the people it represents. In short, the First Amendment is for the purposes of protecting religious and political freedom to prevent a monarch or executive authority from throwing his or her opponents into jail, or squashing dissent as was the general practice of tyrants, regimes and monarchs — until the creation and brilliant “experimental” government of the United States of America.

When Jack Burns, attorney for the Déjà Vu strip club chain, claims that HB 2103 is targeting free speech, all I see is a small pathetic excuse for a lawyer; a lawyer feeds off the rotted fruit on the ground, just after the ambulance chasers and payday loan sharks have had their share.

What ought to enrage every taxpayer is that hard-working citizens on a daily basis have to fight back the tax man for engaging in legitimate pursuits for the welfare of their own family and home, while those who spend their days sitting in dark clubs, leering and indulging their anti-social “getting-turned-on-is-better-than-real-relationships” dark side, get a pass. They get this pass by claiming that paying a tax on their indulgence and laziness is somehow a threat to their constitutional rights. This is what so many have shed their blood for?

Having said this, I do have some uneasiness with HB 2103. The concept of depending on this particular segment of society to fund certain entitlements makes me a little uneasy. The last thing a healthy society (one that is safe for families) wants to do is to become dependent on the revenues produced by purveyors of pornography. On the other hand, why should that segment get a pass from paying their fair share? Herein lies the struggle.

Churches get a pass from taxes, but in return they provide social services and support, second only to state and federal programs. If pornographers moved out of our state tomorrow, we would most likely see a drop in all kinds of negative behaviors such as domestic abuse, drug trafficking and crimes against women and children. I doubt the revenue loss would even be noticed.

Do we want to create a dependence on the porn industry? I haven’t made up my mind with regard to HB 2103, whether the merits outweigh the unintended consequences.

HB 2103 at least shines a spotlight on an industry that gets a pass from the tax man and may save a social service. To quote a Chinese proverb that has become a popular motto for religious groups: “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”