* Illinois News Network…

A national adult film actress known for alleging an affair with the president of the United States will be in the state’s capital city Friday, when she’s expected to protest a surcharge on strip club entries.

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, will be at adult entertainment venue Deja Vu in Springfield to sign books Friday afternoon, and she is expected to perform that evening.

Before that Daniels’ is expected to take part in an event at the state capitol protesting the Live Adult Entertainment Facility Surcharge Act.

The originator of the tax in 2014, state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, said the revenue is meant to help centers for battered women. Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, said it doesn’t suppose that everyone going to a strip club abuses women, just as everyone who goes to a casino doesn’t have a gambling problem. […]

Duane Patterson, general manager of Deja Vu in Springfield, said he fears the money that is being collected isn’t being appropriated correctly, worrying most is going into administration costs.

“It’s a good cause but it was not done the right way,” Patterson said.

* As often happens with these state taxes/fees, the law allows for a small two-percent skim of the tax revenues for administration, but that’s hardly “most” of the money.

The Department of Human Services distributes money collected from the tax. I reached out to DHS yesterday and asked if any of the money is used for administration purposes. The department’s response…

IDHS has a $600,000 appropriation from the Sexual Assault Services and Prevention Fund and all of the appropriation goes directly to the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault (ICASA). None of these funds are used for IDHS administrative costs.

But what about ICASA?

* From Carrie Ward at the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault…

ICASA’s DHS contract includes $600,000 from fees resulting from the Live Adult Entertainment Facility Surcharge Act. The Act was effective 1/1/13; however, it took some time for funds to begin to accumulate in the account. ICASA began allocating funds in FY15. Contrary to Mr. Patterson’s statement, the funds are being appropriated correctly and are not used predominately for administration. Approximately 85% of contracted funds are allocated to ICASA rape crisis centers throughout the state of Illinois for the purpose of providing prevention and crisis intervention services; 15% is retained by the ICASA Administrative Office for training and administration.

Though there will be $600,000 in the fund to meet this year’s budget, this has not been the case every year. While ICASA is contracted to receive a maximum of $600,000 each year, the actual amount we receive is dependent on funds collected. If less than $600,000 is collected, we receive the lesser amount.

These funds are essential to ICASA’s provision of statewide rape crisis services and are consistently used as designated in the act for the purpose of providing community-based assistance to victims of sexual assault and for activities concerning the prevention of sexual assault.

We reached out to Stormy Daniels’ representatives earlier this week in hopes of providing information on how funds are used in Illinois to support rape crisis centers, but we were unable to connect with them.

*** UPDATE *** The tax is an entrance tax, not a tax on performers…

Today I'm protesting at the state capitol in Springfield, Illinois, against the "pole tax" that unjustly targets strippers. We support funding rape crisis centers. We oppose a tax that foists the responsibility to fund them solely on the hardworking adult entertainers of Illinois

— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) March 22, 2019