ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
A tax on tummy tucks and facelifts is itself under the knife in New Jersey. Lawmakers there have voted to phase out the so-called Botax, a 6 percent tax on cosmetic surgery and elective procedures like Botox.
As NPR's Joel Rose reports, New Jersey is one of just a few states with such a tax, a distinction that plastic surgeons have been working hard to erase.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: If you watch much TV, you probably know that the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" are no strangers to the surgeon's knife.
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ROSE: Those housewives may be able to save a few dollars next season, if plastic surgeons in New Jersey get their way. They're urging state lawmakers to phase out a 6 percent tax on cosmetic surgery and similar elective procedures.
DR. CHRISTOPHER GODEK: Patients go into other states without the tax to have their procedures performed to save that 6 percent.
ROSE: Dr. Christopher Godek runs the Personal Enhancement Center in Toms River, near the Jersey Shore. He's also president of the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons. The organization commissioned an economic study which suggests that New Jersey is actually losing revenues because of the tax on cosmetic surgery, not gaining them.
GODEK: When someone has plastic surgery, they're not only coming to a plastic surgeon, they're utilizing a hospital or a surgery center. They're staying in local hotels, their family is eating in local restaurants. They're utilizing pharmacies to fill their prescriptions, so all of that revenue is lost.
ROSE: This is not how New Jersey's tax on cosmetic surgery was supposed to work. Here's State Assemblyman Joseph Cryan explaining the rationale on CBS' "The Early Show" back in 2005.
ASSEMBLYMAN JOSEPH CRYAN: This is an income situation where people are able to afford elective surgery. They're not medical necessities. Clearly, reconstructive surgery would not be part of it. So, it's optional surgery designed to enhance someone's appearance, as opposed to the necessity or quality of one's life.
ROSE: Cosmetic surgery was a big quality of life improvement for Jennifer Farley, better known as JWoww on the show "Jersey Shore." She sounded like an advertisement for breast implants in this interview with "Access Hollywood."
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ROSE: Even with that endorsement, New Jersey's tax on cosmetic surgery is only bringing in about $10 million a year, less than half of what was projected. Lawmakers voted last week to phase it out completely over the next few years. But those revenues, however modest, go into a special fund that reimburses hospitals for charity care, where they're matched by federal dollars.
And that what makes Suzanne Ianni, at the Hospital Alliance of New Jersey, concerned.
SUZANNE IANNI: This is actually bringing in dollars to New Jersey that otherwise we won't be able to get. You know, reversing these assessments that draw down federal monies, I feel, is going in the wrong direction.
ROSE: So did former Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat. In 2007, he vetoed a similar bill that would have snipped New Jersey's tax on cosmetic surgery. The current governor, Republican Chris Christie, has until tomorrow to decide if he'll do the same.
Joel Rose, NPR News.
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