Texas Senator Proposes Game Tax 162
Via 1up, an article at the Brownsville Herald detailing a proposed tax on videogames. From the article: "The McAllen Democrat said on Wednesday he plans to propose a 5 percent tax on videogames when he and other members of the Senate Finance Committee meet this weekend to discuss a series of tax bills. It would raise about $65 million every two years and be designated for new schools and building upgrades at poor school districts, he said. 'You have all these kids buying videogames, and sometimes they are good, some are bad and that's not my call,' Hinojosa said. 'But I think that we can generate (money) to put toward the schools they go to.'"
In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
Leave it to Zonk to get the slashherd spooked for nothing.
Nothing to see here. Move along. Go back to your tentacle pr0n and doughnuts.p
Re:In other news (Score:2)
better idea (Score:1)
Tax (Score:2)
Re:Tax (Score:1)
Re:Tax (Score:2)
Re:Tax (Score:2)
There's good and bad. Remember that we're talking about a state taxation issue here. It's easy to find really good examples of sensible taxation in the U.S., such as (nationally) the Pittman-Robertson Act that taxes sporting goods to pay for conservation. In the U.S., it really is the case that hunters pa
Oh, man. I wish I was still in school... (Score:5, Funny)
from the wtf dept (Score:1, Flamebait)
you know...if these politicians took a 5% pay-cut (or just forgo a raise for a year), I'm sure they can collect the funds to help the schools....or tax the Texan oil companies that are forcing families to choose between school supplies, gas, and food.
heck...if Chenney would donate some of his return, damn...that's alot of money for a po' person like me and old Oprah.
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:5, Informative)
There are 181 members of the Texas Legislature (31 Senators and 150 Representatives). Each one earns $7,200 a year (really! [utexas.edu]) , your 5% pay cut idea would save the state $65,160.
In 2005, the amount of money the Texas Legislature appropriated for general education was $13 Billion. So you'd be increasing that by 0.000005%
Nice try, thanks for playing.
"(or just forgo a raise for a year)"
This is a state proposal, not federal. The Texas Legislature cannot raise its own salary ("cost of living" or otherwise) without the matter first being put before the voters (which is why they're stuck at $7,200 to begin with).
"if Chenney would donate some of his return"
"that's alot of money for a po' person like me and old Oprah"
But a drop in the bucket in the budget for one of the most economically vibrant states in the Union.
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
Hmm...but according to the paper, Ken Lay's condo in Houston cost him 4mill (and cost the American ppl billions).
ANYWAYS...what about OTHER politicians?
You know, city officials, mayors, Senators and Reps....
And why apply the 5% to their "official" pay? Why not apply it to their kickbacks^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcontributions?
As for Cheney, yea...I know he's not from Texas...but he SURELY does business in Texas. Actually, he did donate 6.87mill to charity...why not a few schoo
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
How many people these days know that piece of constitutional trivia? Nice!
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:3)
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
Now what is going on is the exact same model the cigarette tax made. When a state wants to take money from the people and get re-elected, they now can comfortably do it
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:1)
Ah, but most of those consumers live outside of Texas, so it's still a net gain.
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
And you're missing the point; the parent mentioned taxing the oil companies directly. While Texas may not be able to collect taxes from gasoline sold in Florida, they can tax the income the corporation receives from that sale, so it's a net gain for Austin.
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
Re:from the wtf dept (Score:2)
Rings a bell (Score:1, Insightful)
You have all these kids buying videogames
Kids being taxed? Have kids been granted the right to vote when I wasn't looking? I seem to recall Americans having a bit of a problem with taxation without representation.
Can somebody explain to me why kids aren't allowed to vote? Sure, they can be easily swayed by dumb slogans, but hey, if that was the reason for not letting people have the vote, hardly anybody would have it.
Re:Rings a bell (Score:1)
I understand many adults are stupid too, but kids haven't finished school(Social Studies classes in particular), and have not had the opportunity to be exposed to new ideas.
Re:Rings a bell (Score:1)
Not nearly as much as the adults who do vote.
YMBFJ (Score:3, Insightful)
Your recollection needs updating to include the time period after the American Civil War. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the USA who have to pay tax, but aren't allowed to vote, and it has been that way for many years.
Shhhhh! (Score:2)
More money for schools (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:More money for schools (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem isn't that the money goes to people who WORK at the schools, it goes to useless government employees that DON'T WORK at the schools and over price supplies that seam to evaporate into thin air.
It is sad that my first job out of college after undergrad paid more then then public school teachers in some states with 25+ years of experience. It would probably be a lot easier to draw a large number of good teachers (and administrators) if they could provide some reasonable salaries...
Re:More money for schools (Score:1)
Re:More money for schools (Score:5, Interesting)
Teachers aren't overpaid... but administrators are. At least at the district my husband works in, the administrators make much more than the teachers, and they, unlike teachers, cannot be laid off. Seriously, his district lays off teachers every year (driving up class sizes more and more), and when they finally passed a levy, guess what they did. Hired more administrators.
Schools need smaller classes and better teachers. Everything else is just fluff.
Re:More money for schools (Score:2, Interesting)
The idea behind this was that an administrator with many years on the job was making much much more than an entry level administrator, who in turn makes much much more than a newbie teacher fresh
You people are idiots (Score:2)
Re:More money for schools (Score:2)
Politicians get paid pretty well, but nearly all of them suck at doing their job.
And there's the increasing number of medical doctors who do their job with all the passion of a fry cook. They don't seem to be interested in helping patients as much as belting out a diagnosis and getting them to go away.
I'm not sayi
Yeah (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Yeah (Score:1)
Teachers work Sept through May (full months) with a at least a week in June and August so it is closer to 9.5 to 10 months.
Also worth noting is that public school teachers are worse conditions (don't get to pick who they want) and lower pay, so good teachers strive to make it to private schools lowering the standard of our public education.
The people with money who care about their childrens education do pay the
You don't know anything. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know where you live, but I don't know anywhere outside large, high-cost-of-living cities that pay starting teachers $40k+.
My wife is a teacher, with a masters degree, and even with the masters she doesn't make $40k.
And just because you work 8 months a year, it doesn't automatically translate to a $60k a year salary. You try finding seasonal work that will pay you $5k per month. Oh wait, you just got out of high school.
No one is saying there should be 10 kids to a class. But when you have 25-30 kids running around like crazy, it is more difficult to handle them.
I don't know when we ever had 50 students to a classroom in a single room schoolhouse, but the 1870's are so last century. The curriculum is a million times harder than it was then, when most people didn't go to college or even high school. We may not be #1 in the world (or 2 or 3 or 4 etc) but we are WAAAAY more educated as a country than we were back then.
Don't even get me started on "No child left behind" and the FCAT. I know many teachers. My mother. My mother in law. Many of my wife's friends. They all have to teach less and focus on the bullshit FCAT.
Re:You don't know anything. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:You don't know anything. (Score:2)
But for normal discapline, there are ways around it. My wife tends to enjoy ligh
Re:Yeah (Score:2)
Re:Yeah (Score:2)
Almost every teacher I had back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was in school was a glorified babysitter who made minimal effort to actually teach. They were paid pretty well for babysitters. Heck, I h
Re:Yeah (Score:1)
What's the difference? (Score:5, Insightful)
The difference is voters (Score:2)
Re:What's the difference? (Score:3, Insightful)
The difference, at least for movies and music, is the power of the industry lobby groups. You think the RIAA or MPAA would stand for senators proposing taxes on movies or music? No chance. But the video game industry doesn't have so much power. That'
Re:What's the difference? (Score:2)
Re:What's the difference? (Score:2)
As with every sin tax, the argument is "video games are bad for you, so we will tax them so that . .
so it will raise about $30 million a year (Score:3, Insightful)
Well... (Score:2, Insightful)
On the other video games are a luxury item and many other luxury items are taxed.
I'm fine with this and I don't think it is incramentalism, after all they are taxing all games not just the "bad" ones.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
idiots and politicians (Score:5, Insightful)
Most are highly inequitious - such as this tax.
Why should people buying software be paying for schools?
Is there some link here? of course not.
There are well-known principles of general taxation which are equitious and minimize the discouragement caused by taxation to industry. These need to be followed at all times.
ANYONE suggesting tax should be done otherwise is a complete idiot with regard to economics and should be kept WELL away from any such decisions.
Would you have a politician making design decisions for particle accelerators? of course not - you know full well that simply being a politician doesn't make you a physicist.
In EXACTLY the same way, being a politician does not make you an economist - and if politicians are then making economic decisions, their decisions will lead to an economy in the exact same state as the particle accelerator they would otherwise have built.
Tax is too complicated and too closely related to freedom to be used to implement political policy.
Re:idiots and politicians (Score:1)
"Why should people buying software be paying for schools?"
Why should people playing the lottery be paying for schools? Why should people buying yachts be paying for public parks? Why should people buying gum be paying for welfare?
"Tax is too complicated and too closely related to freedom to be used to implement political policy."
exactly what 'political policy' does the (stupid) proposed game tax implement?
Re:idiots and politicians (Score:2)
> Why should people playing the lottery be paying for schools? Why should people
> buying yachts be paying for public parks? Why should people buying gum be paying
> for welfare?
What I was getting at is why should people buying software *particularly, and in excess of all other people*, be paying for schools?
If you accept that general taxation should pay for schools, why should that burden fall that much more on people who buy softwa
Re:idiots and politicians (Score:2)
> > burden fall that much more on people who buy software?"
> First, it's not all software, it's games. Second, my guess is because a typical
> video game consumer is still in school, and therefore the child should support his
> school.
According to the Wiki, the average age of a game player is now 30.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game#Popularity [wikipedia.org]
But that masks the underlying issue here; even if it were that
Re:idiots and politicians (Score:2)
> > *why* does buying computer games mean you *must* give an additional part of your
> > income to support schools?
> because as a school-age person, you use the school system more than someone who
>
> more accurately, get your parents to pay more for them.
If this is the reason used, then why is tax only being applied to the
Re:idiots and politicians (Score:2)
We just have the 10% GST on everything except certain food and other essentials plus a special tax on a couple things like alcohol & cigarettes.
a little advice. (Score:2)
When you want people to believe you, it helps to use proper language. The words are inequitable and equitable. Though those are value judgements, and economists working professionally should avoid using them.
Taxes are used in this manner all the time, Toby. Taxes penalize activities and redistribute
Re:a little advice. (Score:2)
Let me know when you figure out how to elect smart politicians. From what I've seen around here, smart people don't run for office. People who are comfortable running around and having their picture taken while waving a flag or
How about a tax on... (Score:4, Informative)
How about a tax on Democrats who don't think there are enough taxes? Maybe we could tax them out of existence.
And it's not even a tax on the kids, but on their parents. Just another school tax being described as something other than it really is (i.e. I'm taxing kids who buy video games to pay for their schools.)
Or we could tax stupidity. That would put the Democrats out of business before the Republicans -- but not by much!
Re:How about a tax on... (Score:1, Funny)
We already have that in every state. It's called the lottery.
Re:How about a tax on... (Score:2)
Re:How about a tax on... (Score:2)
Um, no, have you read the news lately? Paid attention to foreign and domestic policy? Democrats are not in charge.
Re:How about a tax on... (Score:1)
Re:How about a tax on... (Score:2)
Think of the insane revenues you could raise with those...
And who are those unpatriotic commies complaining?!? Can't they see it's for the kids???
Re:How about a tax on... (Score:2)
The only thing worse and than tax-and-spend Democrats are the tax-cut-borrow-and-spend Republicans.
Or we could tax stupidity. That would put the Democrats out of business before the Republicans -- but not by much!
What could be stupider than expanding the federal government and expanding spending at an astronomical rate far beyond anything Democrats have ever done, and then living in some total delu
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
No, I was correct. The rich certainly pay a higher rate, they are vastly outnumbered by the middle and lower class population. The 50% dividing line of total taxes collected lies near the top of the upper middle class range.
And in any case it does not change my points.
#1 that the Repubicans have been cutting taxes while insanely expanding spending;
#2 that the Republicans have this delusion that the issue is taxes rather
Re:No sir, that is NOT what you said (Score:2)
That that extra 50% is being collected primarily from the poor and middle class and simply being given to the weathiest and shipped out of the country?
More than half of total taxes collected come from the poor and middle class. That is 100% correct. The rich pay a higher rate, but they pay less than half of total taxes. And these interest payments are being paid virtually entirely out of the country or into the pockets of the most wealthy of the wealth
define "videogame" in the form of law (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:define "videogame" in the form of law (Score:2)
If you load a webpage with a java applet that embeds a game in it, and you play it, would you need to voluntarily send in a your videogaming tax fee?
If a software vendor makes serious software that someone finds a way to use for gaming purposes (like tracking gaming odds in spreadsheets), does that software
Re:define "videogame" in the form of law (Score:2)
Obviously, Politics(tm) is a great game, all Politicians(tm) seems to enjoy it very much, even when they don't understand it (which most don't). Hopefully Politicians(tm) will be taxed. And since it look like a MMORPG type of game, they should be taxed monthly. At 5% their salary each month, schools won't have any budget problem for quite a while.
Re:define "videogame" in the form of law (Score:2)
More idoitic nonsense from US politicians (Score:1)
Re:More idoitic nonsense from US politicians (Score:1)
Because he's from Texas, duh! No way he is going to tax his buddies.
A better way to raise money. (Score:2, Insightful)
BTW, I say we should tax campaign contributions.
Tax Contributions: Re:A better way to raise money. (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey, wait: you might have something there.
I am the State Treasurer of a small political party that doesn't accept corporate contributions, just personal ones, as a matter of principle. Some of our contributions come through PayPal. PayPal of course extracts a small fee for the service, so we don't get the full amount. $5 --> $4.55; $10 --> 9.41; $25 --> $23.97. In a certain sense, then, we are already paying a tax (of sorts; obviously it is a
Why not... (Score:1)
Or better yet, pornography.
"Hey kids! Your new playground is sponsored by taxes from hotaction.com! They've even put up a few promotional posters to encourage you!"
Works both ways!
Re:Why not... (Score:2)
Food qualifies as a necessity, and different states do have taxes on it. However, some states have their tax structure setup specificially so that necessities aren't taxed. So such a proposal would require several states to restructure their whole tax system. Good luck there.
Stupid (Score:2)
Democrats just need to face the fact that most Texans don't want to fund schools. If they did, they wouldn't keep voting for Republicans. So quit trying to save people from themselves, and giv
Oh, if Texas politics were only that simple... (Score:5, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I am a Texan Democrat who had a government teacher who loved to rant about Texas politics. For this, I apologize.
OK, it isn't really as simple as a Democrat/Republican thing. Texas tax politics are an icky morass from whence the few who enter seldom return. First of all, because almost all of the state's revenue comes from sales taxes (like this one), the state budget is incredibly sensitive to flucuations in the economy. This problem would be abated if Texas lowered sales taxes and implemented a income tax or state property tax. Even if you aren't from Texas, you should be able to guess that the chances of this are low.
Now, the main way the state government saves money in a crunch is by shifting costs from the state to local level. Hence, most schools in Texas are funded by local property taxes. This is fine for richer neighborhoods (like the one I grew up in), but does nothing to help poorer parts of the state.
What is really needed is a complete overhaul of the tax system. Even if there was the political will to do this, it would be a huge, painful process that would be difficult to design correctly and even more difficult to sell to the public.
Now, I think this is a stupid piece of legislation, and I don't think it's going to pass, and even if it passes, I don't imagine it will do much at all for Texas schools. But let's not be so quick to accuse Republicians, conservatives, Democrats, or even Texans for not caring about education. This is a very difficult problem that is difficult to fix.
Re:Oh, if Texas politics were only that simple... (Score:1)
Dividend Taxes (Score:1)
So Much For The Lone Star State... (Score:2)
Scratch off! (Score:2)
Proposed nothing, I got one of those $30 tickets the other day, won 60 bucks, woot!
Best part is, I work for an ISD so it's like playing for free!
Probably unconstitutional (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Probably unconstitutional (Score:2)
Re:Probably unconstitutional (Score:2)
Granted.
Just to be clear, I'm not the one proposing this tax. :-)
But seriously, the person to whom I was responding made a blanket statement as follows:
Raul654, the author of that statement, wasn't qualifying what ty
Distraction. (Score:1)
horrible for Texas business (Score:1)
'what the taxes are for' is bullshit. (Score:2)
It's just a general tax increase aimed at an unpopular target.
Again? (Score:2)
"You are a slave, Neo."
Why (just) video games? (Score:2, Interesting)
If this is a luxury tax, then why not expand it to cover books, magazines, music and movies (including rentals)?
Let's see...you have "Children", "Taxes", "Schools", "Funding" and the newest addition, "Video Games". A fine example of grandstanding using Political Buzzword Bingo!
I'd point to the fast-food tax which was proposed elsewhere as being a more realistic - and lucurative - revenue source. The only stipulations I'd make are that this tax shoul
remarkably clueless about industry demographics (Score:1)
lol it's fine learn 2 legislate (Score:2)
standard stuff (Score:1)
Please fill out in entirety and submit to appropriate committee
(for a color coded list of committees and their chairs see appendix ii)
My suggestion is to raise taxes on ________.
(something you find distasteful, onerous, or, you know, bad)
Description of why said item should be taxed (please be verbose, and if possible, reasonably accurate):
The tax rate will be __%
We'll use the money to fund ________.
(something most people feel good about, e.g. schools, parks, healthcare)
All le
In the middle (Score:2)
Same old crap. (Score:2)
I've got a better idea... How about aggressively cutting excessive waste from government. They could be just as efficient with half the bloat they have now.
The amount of waste in government is mindblowing. Around here we've had a milder winter than normal and yet, by some miracle local governments still managed to go over-budget on snow removal. We get one bad snowstorm, like we do every year and they start crying for emergency funding.
The government is ess
Re:Well (Score:2)
On a more serious note, the reason is that Video Games are already taxed via VAT/Sales tax. Any extra special "video game tax" is either a double tax or an excise duty. This is essentially the former in practice, but the latter in genesis as excise duties are usually used to discourage certain behaviours.
Re:Only in Texas... (Score:2)
thank you for not making gross generalizations! have a nice day, ya'll!
Re:Die Texas (Score:2)
Re:Die Texas (Score:2)
Plenty of Texans will tell you how incredibly proud they are that when the State was admitted to the Union, the State retained both the right to secede (which isn't really true) and the right to subdivide into 5 separate states (which is definitely true, but not unique) [snopes.com]. While there's always a home-grown movement to secede (it's more of a joke than anything else), occasionally someone floats the idea of subdividing into 5 states. That way, we'd pick up 8 additional senators. As attractive as that notion