Maryland Learns Tax Incentives For Hollywood A Loser For Taxpayers

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AAAintheBeltway

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...c467b2-6c2f-11e4-a31c-77759fc1eacc_story.html

Turns out they get about 10 cents on the dollar back. This is the same state that ran off a stable company employing hundreds of people in good paying jobs making items for the military and police departments, Beretta. They got sick of the relentless anti-gun zealotry and took their jobs to a more friendly state.

The leftwing idiots who run Maryland thought that subsidizing Kevn Spacey was better policy. Ooops, sorry about that. Maybe they could build some more sports stadiums for billionaire owners. Those are such great investments too.

ps. Hey GWB, I thought about your criticism of NC axing tax giveaways for film production when i saw this. Maybe those republicans weren't so dumb after all.
 
AAAintheBeltway said:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...c467b2-6c2f-11e4-a31c-77759fc1eacc_story.html

Turns out they get about 10 cents on the dollar back. This is the same state that ran off a stable company employing hundreds of people in good paying jobs making items for the military and police departments, Beretta. They got sick of the relentless anti-gun zealotry and took their jobs to a more friendly state.

The leftwing idiots who run Maryland thought that subsidizing Kevn Spacey was better policy. Ooops, sorry about that. Maybe they could build some more sports stadiums for billionaire owners. Those are such great investments too.

ps. Hey GWB, I thought about your criticism of NC axing tax giveaways for film production when i saw this. Maybe those republicans weren't so dumb after all.
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Actually the Film industry in North Carolina has generated a large number of jobs and over $1B in revenue. The state granted a tax credit for 25% of the money spent inside the state creating the film (aka “qualified production costs”). The incentives amounted to $61 Million in 2013. Georgia and Louisiana — both with Republican governors and conservative legislatures — offer film and television production tax incentives.

The removal of the tax credit has turned Wilmington, North Carolina from a thriving film center into a deserted ghost town (from a film production perspective for 2015).

“It essentially renders North Carolina no longer competitive in the industry,” said Katy Feinberg, vice president of McGuireWoods Consulting. “It’s a slap in the face to a lot of working families. They’re all looking at houses in Savannah and Atlanta.”
....
Carole Peterman, a unit production manager and line producer from Wilmington, N.C., said the effects of the incentives expiring have been immediate for the three projects she’s currently working on, which have either chosen not to film in the state or are considering that option. Those projects are a pilot that’s now shooting in Virginia, a $14 million feature film that could now head to Louisiana or Georgia, and a movie of the week that will film in North Carolina only if it’s able to wrap up filming before the end of the year when the incentive program expires. If not, it’s heading to New Orleans or Toronto.
....
“There seems to be no explanation for why it’s being done,” he said. “For an administration that is running on job creation and job growth and economic development, it’s very difficult to understand.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...st-minute-hail-mary-rescue-of-tax-incentives/
 
I will add my personal note about this as well. I recently visited the Biltmore in Asheville with my family and toured the house. Many films have been produced at the Biltmore Estate (Silence of the Lambs, etc.). While I was there, a lady was taking a film producer around inside the house discussing positioning equipment for an upcoming production. One of the parts of the conversation I overheard was the producer stating that all filming had to be completed before the end of 2014. The lady responded saying that all 16 productions scheduled for 2015 had cancelled due to the loss of the tax credit so she understood the need to complete production quickly.
 
States and cities throw a lot of money around trying to lure various industries. The tax credits for film production don't seem too huge to me, but I don't have access to the figures. I've seen enough efforts to justify this kind of corporate welfare to distrust numbers being thrown arounf by advocates. Someone always can come up with a big number that "proves" it's a good idea.

If the same sort of subsidies only produced 10 cents on the dollar in Maryland, I have trouble understanding how they are so productive in NC.

At the same time, I do think these are better projects than hog farms that pollute rivers and the coast with runoff and chicken processing plants, which also pollute and apparently can only function with large numbers of illegal immigrants doing the work. NC has been eager to attract those types of business, so it is a mystery to me.
 
AAAintheBeltway said:
States and cities throw a lot of money around trying to lure various industries. The tax credits for film production don't seem too huge to me, but I don't have access to the figures. I've seen enough efforts to justify this kind of corporate welfare to distrust numbers being thrown arounf by advocates. Someone always can come up with a big number that "proves" it's a good idea.

If the same sort of subsidies only produced 10 cents on the dollar in Maryland, I have trouble understanding how they are so productive in NC.

At the same time, I do think these are better projects than hog farms that pollute rivers and the coast with runoff and chicken processing plants, which also pollute and apparently can only function with large numbers of illegal immigrants doing the work. NC has been eager to attract those types of business, so it is a mystery to me.
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Actually a study in Maryland that was not done by state legislators with the pre-determined intent to eliminate subsidies to the film industry showed (from your article) -

"That study, which was published in the summer by the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University, also calculated a much higher return on investment than the legislative analysts did. It said that for every dollar Maryland allocates in film tax credits, it receives $1.03 back in tax revenues."

There are 37 states that provide film tax credits. The leading states in film production normally provide a 25% tax credit for in-state qualified production costs.
 
Some choice the taxpayer has.
Choice.jpg
 
gwb, I would like to see those competing studies analyzed rigorously to understand how they can come to such different results. The fact that they are so far apart must mean that measuring the benefits of these subsidies is not an exact process.

Where is the fairness in a process that selects some businesses for tax credits but not others? I know it is widely done, eg for auto plants, but it still strikes me as unfair.
 
it is unfair. Its socialist / corny... its distorts the market place. it misallocates resources. (raise taxes and then pick favorites. )

since lower taxes creates jobs... we should just lower everyone's taxes.
 
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jem said:
it is unfair. Its socialist / corny... its distorts the market place. it misallocates resources. (raise taxes and then pick favorites. )

since lower taxes creates jobs... we should just lower everyone's taxes.
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Or increase spending, since that creates jobs, too.
 
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