Texas politician proposes 100 percent game tax

Though incumbent Governor Rick Perry is almost assured to win the Republican nomination for this year's gubernatorial election in Texas, he does face three long-shot challengers. One of them, Corpus Christi rancher Star Locke, has proposed eliminating property taxes in the Lone Star State with revenue from taxing three things he finds undesirable. Specifically, Locke is proposing a $10,000 per-abortion tax on medical clinics that perform abortions and a 50 percent tax on all soda that "contains added glucose, fructose, sucrose to the beverage for sale to humans."

[UPDATE] However, gamers will be especially alarmed by the third part of Locke's property-tax-relief proposal--a 100 percent tax on "violent video games." According to the candidate's official Web site, the candidate would impose "The Family Security & Protection Act" when elected. Section 4 of the act calls to "levy a 100 percent of price sales cost tax for the sale on ... any video game containing any form of human violence."

"I take the position that the Founding Fathers took: that the power to tax is the power to destroy," Locke told the Amarillo Globe News. "So our concept is that we need to tax things we don't want and you want to not tax things that you want to encourage."

However, in the unlikely event he is sent to the governor's mansion, Locke would create a 10-member board that would label games as violent. According to the Globe, the tax itself would be levied against the publishers of said games--and quickly. "Once it's reviewed, the tax would be levied swiftly," he said.

[UPDATE] Locke's other platform promises call for the repeal of all alcoholic beverage laws and a 50 percent "grease tax" on "all food prepared by deep-frying or cooking in any form of oil or grease for human consumption."