CARSON CITY, Nev. — Brothel owners Thursday lost an effort to get a first-ever state tax on the industry – a bid for greater respectability.

One proposal to impose the tax won’t be brought up for a vote in an Assembly committee; another was effectively gutted in a Senate committee.

“We really don’t have time to examine the state of the brothel industry,” said Democratic Assembly Commerce Chairwoman Barbara Buckley.

The Assembly bill would have put a 10 percent tax on food and drink served in the state’s 28 bordellos, and a tax of $2 per “party.”

The brothel lobby asked for the tax, hoping it would bring legalized prostitution added acceptability and create some goodwill for the industry.

“If we contribute and do nice things for the state, maybe the state will like us better,” brothel lobbyist George Flint said.

Had the tax offers made it through the Legislature, they would have died on Gov. Kenny Guinn’s desk, a spokesman said. “It’s not something the governor is going to waste any time on,” spokesman Greg Bortolin said.

Flint said the brothel tax offer stands, should future legislatures want to take him up on it. In the meantime, “I bow to the wisdom of the Legislature,” he said.