Hovey isn't the first state lawmaker in the wake of the Newtown tragedy to target video gamers with a tax. Rep. Diane Franklin introduced a similar bill to the Missouri House on January 14th, calling for a 1% surcharge on games with a Teen, Mature, or Adult Only rating. The Missouri bill states that, "immediate action is necessary to protect the mental health of individuals exposed to violent video games."

Rep. Hovey says that she's been thinking about the issue of violent video games long before the Sandy Hook shootings. As an education consultant for children with a son of her own, Hovey has long worried about the effect of simulated gunfire on youth and believes that violent video games add "no value" to society as a whole.



"In conversations, I've found many 9-12 year old kids who are playing these M rated games," she said. "And they are way too fragile and malleable to be viewing this kind of realistic violence."

The proposed video game bill is modeled on other classic sin taxes -- like those levied on alcohol, cigarettes, or at the slot machine -- where the money collected by the tax not only raises general revenue but also goes into a specific fund dedicated to address the worse effects of the supposed "sin." For example, a tax on junk food helps fund public medical spending and PSAs about healthy eating. In this case, Hovey hopes a sin tax will help parents understand "that this kind of [video gaming] activity can impact their child's brains."

But video games aren't like cigarettes, and not just because their risks are less clear. A sin tax on cigarettes should limit smoking by forcing cash-strapped consumers to buy fewer packs. But even if a sin tax on video games reduces the number of video games sold, it won't necessarily limit the hours played. After all, what's the difference between two hours of "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance" and an hour each of "Mortal Kombat" and "Killzone 3"?

Rep. Hovey says she doesn't worry about it. "I have no interest in becoming a nanny or parent to all these children or preventing the number of video games people buy," she said. "My goal is to ramp up awareness of how realistic the content is."



THE PROBLEM WITH SIN TAXES



Adam Hoffer, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, is one of three co-authors of a new working paper examining the creation and growth of the "sindustry"--and why sin taxes often aren't the magic remedy lawmakers hope they'll be.

"Video games [are] the vice right now, what's next down the road?" he said. "Are we going to tax violent movies? TV shows? Hey, why not an HBO tax?"

If the state of Connecticut feels strongly that parents should learn about video game addiction and anti-social behavior, Hoffer explains, the state can collect revenue from other sources-- or allocate existing public health funds to the problem.