To Tax and Destroy Video Games

Game Politics is reporting on a story from the Amarillo Globe News (free reg. req.) regarding a Republication gubernatorial candidate for the state of Texas who doesn't seem to be a big fan of video games. Star Locke, a rancher from Corpus Christi, pledges to abolish Texas' property tax laws and replace them with steep taxes on certain products and services whose consumption he wishes to discourage. It comes as no real surprise given the current political obsession with our hobby that one of those products is violent video games.

Locke said he favors instituting a $10,000 per-abortion tax on abortion service providers, a 50-percent tax on violent video games and a 10-percent tax on soft drinks with added sugar to fund state government.

"I take the position that the Founding Fathers took: that the power to tax is the power to destroy," he said. "So our concept is that we need to tax things we don't want and you want to not tax things that you want to encourage."

It's certainly a different approach than other politicians have taken in their attempts to discourage or control the sale of violent games. Locke seems to hope to make game development and sale in Texas costly enough that it will disappear. In addition to the excessive 50% video game tax, Locke also proposes unspecified taxes against video game manufacturers themselves. It is unclear whether this refers to just publisher or both developers and publishers. Texas is home to a multitude of game developers, including id Software, 3DRealms, Ritual Entertainment, Gearbox Software, Ensemble Studios, and others. In the state primaries in March, Locke will go up against three opponents, including current governor Rick Perry.