http://www.wickedlocal.com/dover/news/x1759787192/Economic-straits-play-supporting-role-for-film-tax-credit-arguements

Critics of the state’s film tax credit program ripped the incentives Wednesday as poor fiscal policy when the state can least afford it, while industry proponents defended the $125 million program as a boon to the local creative economy.

At a crowded Gardner Auditorium hearing, both sides honed arguments that have swirled since the state passed the incentives in 2006, sharpened by the state’s economic pangs.

Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed Mass. Taxpayers Foundation since 1992, said the state could effectively employ a blend of 2,000 police officers, firefighters and teachers for the cost of the program.

“In my 20 years at the foundation … I would say this is probably the most costly tax credit with the least economic benefit in my experience,” Widmer said.

Appearing on a separate panel, television producer Michael Maschio, who worked as a producer on the show “Spenser: For Hire,” said he was shooting an ABC pilot in Boston that, if picked up as a series, could bring $2 million per episode to the state.

“We wouldn’t be here with this show if it were not for the tax incentives,” Maschio told the Revenue Committee. “It will leave in a heartbeat if we don’t get this tax credit.”

The tax sweeteners, hailed as the keys to jumpstarting the state’s motion picture industry, offer sales and use tax exemptions, a transferrable 25 percent payroll credit, and a transferrable 25 percent credit on production expenses. The Department of Revenue expects to issue $125 million in credits next fiscal year. Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed capping the program at $50 million.

Under a bill (H 3854) filed by Rep. Steven D’Amico, a Seekonk Democrat, the state would revert to the 2006 incentive levels, imposing a $7 million limit on each production, reducing current credits to 20 percent, and excluding salaries above $1 million.

“We, in effect, issue Hollywood a blank check,” D’Amico told the panel. Noting cutbacks across state government, he said, “It’s time for us to impose that same level of budgetary discipline to film tax credits.”

The crowd of more than 300 in the capitol’s largest hearing venue was overwhelmingly in favor of the current tax credits, jeering some speakers who sided against the program and clapping for those in support.

Rick Cambria, a Rehoboth resident and former construction worker now in the film industry, won smiles and hoots of approval from the audience when he said D’Amico wanted to “take away my job. He might as well take my house away too.”

The state’s economic condition served both sides of the argument, with critics arguing that Beacon Hill ledgers, awash in red ink and facing an estimated $2.7 billion deficit next year, can ill-afford to dole out taxpayer dollars to an industry whose biggest earners reside out of state. Incentive backers said the prospect of netting jobs from both direct investment and ancillary spending, with unemployment hovering above 9 percent, should prove a crucial argument to lawmakers.

Citing Department of Revenue (DOR) estimates, the Mass. Film Office claims the film industry shot 13 major films here in 2008, generating $452 million in direct spending. Proponents of the current policy said local production spending would fall 80 percent under the rollback.

Senate President Therese Murray, still hoping to lure a $400 million studio investment to her Plymouth hometown, on Wednesday defended the tax credits, saying towns in the Cape Cod portion of her district had seen an economic uptick in art galleries, hardware stores, hotels and restaurants.

“If you’re going to have a consistent tax policy, you can’t keep changing it like this,” Murray told the News Service. “I think it brings in money to the Commonwealth beyond what DOR says.”

Charles Merzbacher, a filmmaker and Boston University film professor, said the tax policy had resulted in a “fundamental, positive transformation of the creative economy in the Commonwealth.”

Merzbacher said the program had allowed his BU students to build careers in Massachusetts.

“If the Legislature tinkers with the … credits, it will not simply send a chill through the industry, it will turn off the switch,” Merzbacher said.

Jennifer Weiner, a policy analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said the state faced aggressive competition from others looking to entice the same industry, some with more generous tax lures. She said policymakers should not regard the tax credits as onetime investments with long-term dividends.

“If this competitive environment persists, Massachusetts is likely to have to continue to offer [film tax] credits year after year,” Weiner said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/86697377.html

By GARY PERILLOUX

Advocate business writer

The Louisiana economic development department’s entertainment office will court business Friday through March 21 in Austin, Texas, at the massive South by Southwest film and music festival known as SXSW.

A portion of the week also is dedicated to digital interactive technologies that share projects with film and music producers.

The SXSW follows the office’s late January event in Los Angeles, “Only in Louisiana: A Celebration of Music, Culture and Business.” At that business development event, state officials and Louisiana entertainers regaled Grammy Awards attendees with live music, cuisine by chef John Folse and pitches to do in business, where the state has wooed $3 billion in entertainment investment since 2002.

A similar message will be sent to Austin congregants. That pitch comes at a time when 15 movies and TV series are in pre-production or production, according to the state entertainment office.

Among the latest developments is NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” TV series, which will come to New Orleans in a 10th season casting call March 20 at the Riverview Marketplace. Around the state, “Earthbound” starring Kate Hudson is wrapping production this week in New Orleans while “Flypaper” starring Patrick Dempsey will shoot in Baton Rouge May 3-June 4 and “Drive Angry” starring Nicholas Cage will film March 15-May 14 in Shreveport.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hQWhcEaSCaNFo99UFKi8Rg6i7ppAD9E844O00

By CHUCK BARTELS (AP) – 2 days ago

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — An incentive package approved by the Legislature is helping attract filmmakers to Arkansas, which the state’s film commissioner says is a solid way to build a new segment to the state’s economy.

Christopher Crane, who runs a one-man office within the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, said Thursday that Arkansas is developing a reputation in the film community as a good place to make a movie, commercial or TV show.

Harry Thomason has been in Arkansas filming “The Last Ride,” a movie about the final three days of country singer Hank Williams Sr.’s life. Thomason would be due a $300,000 rebate from the state if, as planned, he spends $2 million making the film. His application is pending.

The Legislature approved an updated incentives package last year that allows filmmakers to obtain for a 15 percent rebate on qualified production spending in the state. A 10 percent rebate for payroll of Arkansas residents working on the project is also available.

Thomason’s movie, which will return to the state for exterior filming, had a crew of 70, with 52 of them Arkansas residents, Crane told members of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission during a meeting in Hot Springs on Thursday.

One condition for receiving a rebate is that the film has to portray the state in a positive light. Crane said it would be wrong to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize a project that took cheap shots at the state.

“I think everyone here has seen depictions of Arkansas that were not what we wanted it to be,” Crane said. “We have to go through the script.”

To get the money, productions have to submit records detailing spending and payroll. The Department of Finance and Administration reviews the applications.

Money spent by film crews introduces cash into the state economy, as opposed to locals spending at each others’ businesses.

“They throw those new dollars,” Crane said. “We want to make sure those dollars are tracked.”

Six projects are seeking approval for $540,000 in rebates for $3 million in spending. That includes Thomason’s movie.

Crane, who went into more detail outside the meeting room, said there is a growing base in Arkansas of workers qualified as film crew members because students entering college are eager to study film. Colleges and universities are working to accommodate the students, he said.

“The industry in and of itself is energized,” Crane said.

Arkansas, with its terrain ranging from the flat of the Delta to the pinnacles of the Ozark Plateau, offers a broad range of locations. Crane said the state could use a soundstage — an indoor space designed for making movies — and that developing one is among his goals.

The state Department of Parks and Tourism is working with Crane to create a “film trail” in Arkansas, so visitors can see where movies have been made over the years.

“You can go see where they made ‘Bloody Mama,’” he said, naming a 1970 low-budget movie with an incest subplot filmed in and around Little Rock and Mountain Home. Likewise, locations for “Sling Blade,” “The Blue and The Gray,” and other movies could be on the map.

Crane said California’s wine country created a tour based on the movie “Sideways,” which lets visitors trace the steps of the film’s characters.

“We’re kind of looking at stealing that business model,” he said.

Feature-length films get the most attention, but Crane said having a flow of commercials and TV series filmed in the state will develop a stable industry.

Plus, there’s an intangible quality brought by the creative arts.

“There’s something about it that’s magical. It brings a community together,” Crane said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jocZx1fHpFE8-kIcZgWyw79diPnwD9E8331O0

By TIM MARTIN (AP)

LANSING, Mich. — Some of Michigan’s targeted business tax incentives aren’t effective when compared to possible broader tax-relief alternatives, according to a study released Thursday.

The report from the East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group was commissioned by the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. The MEA says eliminating ineffective tax incentives could free up resources for education and other programs aimed at improving the state’s economy.

“Michigan is struggling economically,” said Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group. “We can only afford to pursue the most effective tax-abatement programs.”

The Michigan Economic Development Corp. defended the state’s tax-incentive programs Thursday. The economic development agency, which helps coordinate many of the incentive programs, noted Michigan finished third in Site Selection magazine’s ranking of states with the most major new corporate facilities and expansions in 2009, trailing only Ohio and Texas.

Anderson’s study reviewed eight of more than 30 Michigan tax-incentive programs. The effects of each program were compared to what might happen if a broader tax cut of equal value was made available.

The report said some of Michigan’s tax incentives are comparatively effective at creating jobs and boosting tax revenue, including industrial property tax abatements and a program that helps rehabilitate obsolete property. The tax breaks target broad classes of businesses across the state.

Some other state tax-incentive programs showed mixed results or have relatively small economic benefit. Those include a brownfield redevelopment incentive and a commercial property rehabilitation tax abatement.

Others are counterproductive, according to the report, because they subsidize businesses that aren’t likely to be long-term.

Michigan’s film industry credit refunds 40 percent to 42 percent of a company’s qualified expenditures, one of the nation’s most generous giveaways. The program has brought business and attention to the state, but critics contend most of the jobs are temporary and last no longer than it takes to film a particular movie. Anderson said the program, which could cost Michigan more than $150 million in incentives this year, leaves little to show for the investment.

“We may have no more than one or two buildings and a whole lot of ‘Clint Eastwood slept here’ signs,” Anderson said.

The state’s economic development corporation counters that the film credits have been “broadly successful” and will pay more dividends as the industry continues to build in Michigan.

The report also questioned the overall effectiveness of low-tax or tax-free “renaissance zones” and some Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax credits, which target specific businesses that have expanded significantly in recent years. Requirements for businesses to earn the tax breaks have been lowered in some cases.

Lawmakers keep expanding the credits to new types of businesses in the hopes of keeping more jobs in the state, which has had the nation’s highest unemployment rate for nearly four consecutive years. Some of the most recent types of tax breaks, including those for advanced battery production, aren’t included in the new study because they haven’t existed long enough to measure results.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2010-03-05/locations-incentives-lure-film-crews-georgia?v=1267831014

By Steven Uhles

Macon got The Crazies and Valdosta got the living dead in Zombieland .

More than 26 feature films were shot in Georgia during the 2009 fiscal year. Some, such as The Crazies, Zombieland and the Oscar-nominated The Blind Side , were significant productions, mounted in full Hollywood style. Others were more modest.

“Last year we had productions in 50 counties in Georgia,” said Bill Thompson, the deputy commissioner of the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment office. “Typically, it has been Savannah and Atlanta, but now there’s a real willingness to explore other areas.”

So far, inquiries have been made, but no film crews are ready to set up shop in Augusta.

The last significant production that involved filming locally occurred in 2006, when the comedy Who’s Your Caddy? spent one night shooting at the former Modjeska night club on Broad Street.

There have been several inquiries about filming in Augusta since then, according to Jennifer Bowen, the vice president for public relations at the Augusta Metro Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

“We have location scouts call every few months,” she said.

She said a scout from an unspecified Dreamworks production recently looked at Sibley Mill. So far, she said, Augusta’s rejection seems to have been for artistic reasons.

“We are actually very well positioned for film production,” she said. “We don’t require a lot of the licensing and fees that some communities have. There aren’t some of the permits some cities require. It’s relatively easy to have a street closed off if need be.”

Much of the recent production boom in the state can be traced to the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act, signed in May 2008. It grants film, television and video game productions a 20 percent tax credit when more than $500,000 is spent in a single fiscal year. An additional 10 percent is available if an official Georgia logo is embedded in the final product. Up to 8 percent in sales tax relief is also available to qualifying productions.

Thompson said Georgia also attracts filmmakers because of its temperate climate and diverse locations.

“We’ve actually been at this a long time,” he said. “We’ve discovered silent movies that were shot in Georgia. In every decade, with the exception of the 1930s, there have been productions in Georgia.”

Thompson said there are things a community can do to market itself to the film industry. He said having location reels available and experts on hand who can help sell a community helps. He also said there’s nothing stopping a community from adding financial incentives on top of the state program.

“It’s definitely all about the marketing,” he said. “You have to get those filmmakers to your town to see what you have to offer.”

Thompson said having an established film office helps. A Mayor’s Film Office was set up during Bob Young’s administration. The office never attracted a feature film here, and the program was closed for budgetary reasons.

The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau addresses film inquiries. The CVB maintains a photo library of location sites and is developing a “Camera-Ready” designation package to promote its availability and ease of access to the film industry.

“In the end, I think it’s really about being the right fit for the right production,” Bowen said. “We just haven’t had our lucky shot — yet.”