CARY – My son Andrew, the Little General, was teary-eyed. He had just lost a knock-down, drag-out debate with his brother Alex, the Little Conqueror. It was Sunday afternoon, we had all finished our lunch, the temperature outside was blazing, and therefore we were off to a suburban movie theater. The question was, of course, what to see?

“Can we see The Fantastic Four?” Andrew asked, with a sly smile (he knows well how much of a comic geek his dad is). Alex objected that he and Andrew had already seen the film once, so it was time for something else. I suggested Herbie: Fully Loaded, which immediately had a passionate fan in Alex (who had not previously heard of the film).

In the end, the Bug ran over the Fan Four. Andrew was broken-hearted – until roughly 90 seconds after the movie started, by which time he was delighted. As for me, I had trouble concentrating on the first few minutes (after which I was about as delighted as the kids with what is definitely a fun flick) because I was trying to read the card I got at the ticket window of the multiplex.

“Help Stop the Movie Tax!” it read. “The State of North Carolina is proposing an increase to taxes on movie tickets.” The card went on to explain, correctly, that the tax change would raise the price to a family of four of going out to the movies by about $1.60 per outing. For folks who like movies, or at least reliable air conditioning during the summer months, this tax increase has the potential to cut quite a bit into the recreation fund.

Now, I do have a couple of nitpicks about the theater owners’ card campaign (read more here). First off, the proposal is not really to impose a “movie tax.” It is rather to apply North Carolina’s standard sales-tax rate to movies, which would be 7 percent everywhere except tax-happy Mecklenburg, where it would be 7.5 percent. Right now, some competitors to movie theaters such as video stores have to apply the standard sales-tax rate. So there is some logic to equalizing the tax treatment of the various, competing entertainment choices.

But there is absolutely no reason why this can’t be done on a revenue-neutral basis. The movie-ticket item is part of a package of “streamlined sales tax” changes expected to bring in nearly $90 million when fully implemented. That’s enough to allow the sales tax rate to fall by a tenth of a percentage point. Previous sales-tax “streamlining” could have financed an even deeper cut in the rate.

My second objection is to the assertion on the card that the tax “could have serious impact [on] your communities.” In the whole scheme of things, I tend to doubt it. We are not talking about a huge amount of money. It would be fair to say that the tax increase will cause some harm to patrons, theater owners, and theater employees, and that’s bad enough since there is more than enough low-priority spending to eliminate in North Carolina’s budget to offset the need for the new taxes.

The sales tax on movie tickets appears to have widespread support – but then again, Herbie faced long odds in the movie’s ending race scene. He won. I’m pulling for the underdog again.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.