Backstage: A coalition of Hollywood unions, moguls and lobbying groups are pushing the California state legislature to extend a five-year, $500-million tax credit to promote filming of TV shows and movies in the state. But the measure is getting push-back from some who feel the benefit to the entertainment industry is coming at the expense of college students, the sick and the poor, all of whom have seen government services cut as California faces a budget crunch.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Hollywood Pushes California Legislature For Filming Incentive Extension
Backstage: A coalition of Hollywood unions, moguls and lobbying groups are pushing the California state legislature to extend a five-year, $500-million tax credit to promote filming of TV shows and movies in the state. But the measure is getting push-back from some who feel the benefit to the entertainment industry is coming at the expense of college students, the sick and the poor, all of whom have seen government services cut as California faces a budget crunch.
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I think that this article takes the current economic debate raging in this country: whether cutting spending or boosting revenue will be more effective at boosting our economy and lessening our deficit, and focuses it on the film industry. On one hand, eliminating these rebates could drive filmmakers from Hollywood to alternative locations that become cheaper: on the other hand, they may not, and California is losing out on half a billion dollars that it desperately needs. My personal feeling tends towards the latter position because of the sheer infrastructure set up in California in order to produce movies. If there were to be a mass exodus from Hollywood to some other location (if such a location were even as centralized as Hollywood), new infrastructure would have to be built, which I would think would cost much more than the $500 million that the film industry as a whole would “lose” in tax breaks. Therefore, I don’t think that if the tax breaks were eliminated, Hollywood would become deserted and the state of California even more destitute, too many people would have to uproot their lives.
The entertainment industry is already filthy rich, so why should taxes be cut in order to bring more film into the state? The money that is being given out in tax breaks could be used to fund something else in the government, such as education programs or college scholarships. Offering the tax breaks may also be taking the money away from other states that need money in order to give it to California. The entire US is hurting with the economy as bad as it is, not just a few states.
This makes me concerned for the longevity of the film industry in LA. There are a vast number of networks and film projects that have fled the once great cinematic city. Vancouver has taken a vast number of lower budget television shows and has a large number of syfy channel shows and movies now being filmed there. The major cities Toronto and Vancouver also now have their own film festivals and host large labor pools of talented and cheaper labor for the film industry. As with any major business there will be good times and bad for any city, however I think that LA has lost its monopoly on the film industry though it will always be a strong contender. Hopefully if the tax incentives fall through we will see a resurgence of regional film making. The film industry has only had one major outlet for decades and hopefully we will see some innovation and some new ideas flowing into an industry that has been producing more and more truly terrible large budget films. While I hope that there will be some movement away from LA I also hope that the jobs in the film industry do not get shipped overseas.
I still can't decide how I feel about these tax credits. On one hand, I think it's good to try to increase the movie traffic, but I also wonder if the benefits really match up to the costs involved. I'm inclined to be supportive of my industry, but I'm also weary of supporting public subsidies for private organizations when it doesn't actually benefit the locality. Each time I hear about one of these credits, I wonder how the balance really comes out.
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