Taxing games to pay for time outdoors

So in the “here’s a lousy idea” category, check out this, from New Mexico (originally available at: (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/02/01/game.tax.ap/index.html?eref=rss_tech):

A 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 cannot.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.

Now OF COURSE outdoor education programs are a good idea, and we should do more to fund them. But taxing games and TVs to do it doesn’t make much sense.

First off, targeted taxes like this are just a bad idea in general. If you want to tax games as a matter of public policy that’s one thing. And if you want to fund outdoor education that is another. We could debate the merits of each, but as a matter of tax policy it doesn’t make much sense to link them. Is the point that if people play fewer games then we should defund outdoor education programs? I hope not, since outdoor programs are good for kids regardless of whether they play games or not.

Second, if it makes sense to tax games to pay for outdoor education because they keep kids from being outside, then surely we should tax books. And movies. And school. And pillows. And a whole host of other things that entice kids indoors.

The goal of funding outdoor education–and more generally getting kids to spend time outdoors and value wilderness–is a good one. But this is just a poor political stunt.