To Close Budget Gap, Cologne May Tax Sex Trade

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COLOGNE, Germany: : Fun is not a word that regularly comes to mind in this country, particularly in the leaden grip of a German winter. But Cologne, with its art galleries, theaters, nightclubs, and television studios, can reasonably lay claim to the title of Germany’s fun city.

The merriment peaks during the carnival season, which reels to a close next week when this ancient Roman city on the Rhine gives itself over to a bacchanalian display of parades, street festivals, and public drunkenness that makes Munich’s Oktoberfest look like a garden party.

With high jinks so much a part of Cologne’s image, it’s little surprise that many locals are howling about a new tax the city is levying on all sorts of amusements — from pop concerts and discos to the sex trade.

City officials say the “pleasure tax” is necessary to plug a $500-million hole in Cologne’s budget, caused by the recent recession. The city hopes to raise almost $3.5 million a year from the tax — a quarter of that from brothels, message parlors, and table-dancing clubs that are required to pay 150 euros, or $193, a month.

“We’re not judging how people amuse themselves,” said Josef-Rainer Frantzen, the head of Cologne’s tax authority. “Mr. A. spends his money in a gambling hall, Mr. B. in a discotheque, and Mr. C. in a brothel. But if you have a deficit, you don’t have a lot of choices to raise income.”

Still, Cologne is drawing distinctions. While the tax applies to plays and concerts (in the form of a 3.5 percent surcharge on tickets), arts lobbyists persuaded the city to exempt performances with fewer than 250 people in the audience. They warned it would bankrupt small cultural institutions.

Now, Cologne may roll back the tax on big events, because critics say it will drive away international pop stars.

The carnival, a four-month extravaganza which starts in November, is exempt entirely, even though it draws a million visitors to Cologne, many of whom pay $50 or more to get into clubs where they can watch people in goofy costumes dance and deliver bilious speeches.

With its roots in the Middle Ages, when winter-weary people cut loose before the self-denial of Lent, the carnival is considered too much a part of Cologne’s history to be taxed, according to Frantzen. Never mind that the city’s sex trade goes back at least that long.