Group wants gamers, couch potatoes to pay

Coalition thinks tax on video games, TVs will motivate more kids to get outdoors

Susan Montoya Brown | The Associated Press

1/30/2008 -

ALBUQUERQUE — Dave Gilligan remembers being pushed outside so he could learn how to play baseball and other sports. But it just wasn't for him.

Now the 24-year-old business owner is worried that an effort to get kids off the couch and into nature by using a proposed tax on televisions and video games sold in New Mexico could backfire.

"There's nothing wrong with sitting at home playing games. Everybody's doing it now," said Gilligan, co-owner of Gamers Anonymous, an Albuquerque video game store. "If you take a kid that's just playing his X-Box or whatever and you take him outside and you make him play baseball, he's going to hate it."

But a broad coalition of groups, led by the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, is sold on the idea that outdoor education programs can inspire children in a way that video games and television can't.

The coalition wants state lawmakers to create a No Child Left Inside Fund with a 1 percent tax on TVs, video games and video game equipment. The fund would help pay for outdoor education throughout the state.

Supporters of the proposed tax — the first effort of its kind in the nation — say outdoor programs have been shown to improve students' abilities in the classroom, boost their self-confidence and teach them stewardship and discipline.

"We believe that an outdoor education program in New Mexico could be funded through a tax on the very activities that are divorcing kids from nature, promoting more sedentary lifestyles," said Michael Casaus, Sierra Club's New Mexico youth representative. "One of those culprits is TV and what we call screen time."

Casaus said he believes people would be supportive if they knew only a penny of each dollar spent on TVs, games and gaming equipment would be going toward improving the education and health of New Mexico children.

Not everyone sees it that way.

Blogs dedicated to the gaming world have been abuzz over the proposal, with critics complaining they shouldn't have to foot the bill for parents who don't know how to raise their children. Some point to the principle of having to pay another tax while others see the discussion as a chance to talk about gaming's benefits.

Take Gilligan for example. He learned to read at a young age, thanks to video games, and his interest in art was a direct result of gaming.

"I'm not a very athletic person," he said, thinking back to his days on the baseball field. "I kept playing video games, and eventually my parents accepted that. And now it's my career, and I make good money so I'm happy."

Sean Bersell, vice president of public affairs for the Entertainment Merchants Association, rattles off the computer advances that have been driven by the gaming industry, like faster processors and better graphics and sound.

Bersell, whose group represents about 125 retailers in New Mexico, said supporters of the tax have it all wrong if they want to fight complex problems like low test scores and childhood obesity by turning off the TV.

"Targeting a small category of entertainment as somehow a major contributor to these problem is just not justified and frankly it's not supported by a scientific consensus," he said.

And it's not just children who are playing. More than two-thirds of American heads of households play computer and video games, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

Bersell also said the tax would put New Mexico retailers at a disadvantage as they compete with online stores and retailers that offer downloadable games.

The gaming industry can bring in big money. For example, market research shows retail sales of game hardware and software neared $18 billion last year.

Beyond the money, Bersell said there are serious legal questions about the constitutionality of a tax. He said cases in other states have established that video games are expressive products protected by the First Amendment.

"This is important because once you have something that's protected by the First Amendment, then the Supreme Court looks very carefully at attacks on that," he said.

Supporters argue that just like health programs are often supported by excise taxes on cigarettes or alcohol, an excise tax on games and TVs would provide steady funding for outdoor education. Legislative analysts have said the tax would generate about $4 million a year.

New Mexico State Parks already offers outdoor programs, but the funding isn't recurring, and it's just a fraction of what the tax would bring in.

Although State Parks isn't carrying the bill this session, Director Dave Simon said the little money his department has for outdoor education has already helped thousands of children experience nature at state parks around New Mexico.

He said television and video games aren't evil, but there's what he called a "displacement effect" in America as children get more screen time rather than playing and learning outdoors.

"The No Child Left Inside movement is growing nationally by leaps and bounds, and right now New Mexico is a leader in this movement," Simon said. "I think our challenge is, if we want to stay a national leader, we need to be innovative and creative and take bold steps, and this certainly would be a bold step." The bill is House Bill 583.