Los Angeles Times: "Like the Clint Eastwood character in the Detroit-area-set movie 'Gran Torino,' the new governor of Michigan is telling Hollywood to get off his lawn.
Rick Snyder, a Republican who was elected governor of the Great Lakes State on a platform to curb spending, wants to gut Michigan's film tax credit program, one of the most generous in the country. In his $45-billion budget plan, unveiled Thursday, Snyder proposed reducing or eliminating various state tax credits, including those awarded for filming.
2 comments:
I understand that there are deficits elsewhere in Michigan and that potentially by gutting it the state can move the money elsewhere. However, when the film industry moved to Michigan the jobs it created were enormous. With so many of the plants in Michigan closing down this was the first time that we were able to get a boost in jobs again even if it was little. They even said 'that expenditures that qualified for the state's media production credits did not affect the Michigan economy' well on paper that might have been true but at least it boosted the moral a little and got some people back their feet. I think that cutting this industry down is going to be a big mistake.
I agree with Sonia: the film industry will seek out locations cheaper than Los Angeles, and its presence wherever it goes will positively affect the economy. A lot of filming has moved out of the country in recent years, often to the Vancouver area but sometimes much farther. If Michigan steps aside, though, as I understand it, Pittsburgh may be a popular destination for filming in the coming years.
Interesting that a Republican governor suggested this change; I would associate that party with tax cuts and incentives...
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