"Pole Tax"

This week I read in my AARP magazine that Florida state Rep. Rick Kriseman, (D) has proposed a bill that would include a $1 surcharge on clients of adult strip clubs and the state would use the revenue to increase monthly Medicaid personal needs allowances.  Currently in Florida its $35 a month and they are hoping to increase that to $70 a month.  Here in Illinois, I believe a nursing home resident on Medicaid only gets a $30 a month allowance (and supportive living residents on Medicaid get a $90 allowance.)  That gives the resident about $1 a day to spend as they wish.  So the ongoing debate has always been how to increase this allowance to be much more livable. 

I had never heard of such a tax before and as I researched it online I read about how they had a $5 "pole tax" in Texas but a Judge declared it unconstitutional 3 months after it went into effect.  (This tax was not for Medicaid it was for anti-sexual-assault programs and healthcare for the uninsured.

Not sure how this is all going to turn out.  Maybe they should consider an additional $1 tax on some of the things that might put someone in a nursing home (like cigarettes?)  But since I can't think of any ideas I guess that is why I am not a politician.  I do hope that Medicaid payments can be increased for nursing home residents by all states (its state run, not federal) so we will have to keep watching the news to see what happens.