News > Illinois Governor Wastes $1,000,000 Fighting Video Games
May 27, 2007
Rod Blagojevich is the governor of Illinois. Rod Blagojevich has something against video games. Rod Blagojevich spent one million dollars of taxpayers' money fighting a 2005 federal court decision that declared a state law banning the sale of violent or sexual-explicit video games to minors unconstitutional.
According to the Quad-Cities Online, "The governor raided funds throughout state government to pay for the litigation. Some of the areas money was taken from included the public health department, the state's welfare agency and even the economic development department. ...the governor's staff, testifying before the committee, admitted they just stuck state agencies that had available funds with the bills..."
The debt to the video game industry owed by the state of Illinois was already $510,000. The unsuccessful attempt to overturn the prior court ruling pushed that number up to about $1,000,000.
So...rather than using it for important affairs, why don't ALL state governments follow the lead of Illinois and throw money into a fruitless fight against interactive entertainment?
*Eddie R Inzauto - Senior Editor, GameWad.com
