According to a report in The Brownsville Herald yesterday, Democratic Texas senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa has said he will propose a tax on games sold in the state at a Senate Finance Committee meeting this weekend. The tax would hike the cost of games 5 percent. Hinojosa said the measure would generate about $65 million every two years and that the money would go to fund new schools and improvements in poorer school districts.
This is not the first time someone has proposed taxing games. Earlier this year, another Texas politician, Republican gubernatorial candidate Star Locke, campaigned on a platform that included a 50 percent tax on soda, a $10,000 tax on medical clinics for every abortion they provide, and a 100 percent tax on violent games. Unlike Locke, Hinojosa already holds office (Locke came in fourth out of four candidates in the primary elections with 3.5 percent of the vote), and his tax isn’t singling out violent games.
“You have all these kids buying video games, and sometimes they are good, some are bad and that’s not my call,” Hinojosa is quoted as saying in the Herald article. “But I think that we can generate (money) to put toward the schools they go to.”