ESA Slams Wisconsin Proposed Video Game Tax

Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach has proposed to add a 1% surcharge to video game purchases in order to fund a juvenile justice program. He reasons that the tax on video games. that he is assuming are mostly bought by teens, should go to keep these same teen out of the adult criminal justice system.

ESA president Michael Gallagher had this to say about the Wisconsin tax proposal: (from Joystiq)

This bill will stunt an industry that is growing in Wisconsin at over 11% per year and contributes more than $23 million to the state economy. It negatively impacts the hundreds of Wisconsin citizens whose jobs and families depend on the computer and video game industry.

And, it unfairly burdens all Wisconsin consumers by imposing a double tax on video games and game consoles. Not only is it unconstitutional to discriminatorily target video games with a punitive tax, there is no public policy support for the bill: The fact is that national juvenile crime has decreased as video games have soared in popularity.

On the other side of the fence stands Wendy Henderson, policy analyst for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. She’s quoted in the LaCrosse Tribune as saying:

Video games are perhaps not the best use of the kids’ time, so if we can use some of the money from the video games and turn it into something positive, that’s a really good use of that money.

Senator Erpenbach admits there is no connection between teen crime and video games, but asks for a better solution for funding to keep 17 year old criminals out of adult jails. The proposal hasn’t been officially submitted and there are no cosponsors for it as of yet. Still, the ESA is worried about the precedent a video game tax could set.

I can see the advantage of keeping 17 year olds out of the adult justice system. However I feel the logic here is flawed as according to the ESA the average age of video gamers is 33 and the average age of video game purchasers is over 40. In fact in 2007 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18. To say the video game tax is teens helping themselves just doesn’t stand up against the evidence.

via GamePolitics