May 4, 2010
Detroit News Publishes Op-Ed on Film Tax Credits by Manager of Media Relations Natasha Altamirano
"Michigan should stop red-carpet tax treatment of film industry"
By Natasha Altamirano
At a film industry trade show in California earlier this month, representatives from the Michigan Film Office touted the state's film tax credit as one of the most generous incentive programs of their kind, but lawmakers should rethink whether this is the kind of spotlight Michigan wants.
In fact, movie production incentives are a waste of money that fail to live up to promises of economic growth, and they're especially unwise when the state faces a $1.6 billion budget shortfall.
As a relative latecomer to the film tax credit game, Michigan had to enact a very generous incentive to lure productions from states like Louisiana that had jumped into the bidding early. Michigan and a pack of other states now find themselves in an arms race of incentives while Hollywood film producers sit back and enjoy the bidding war, waiting for the best deal.
Enter the dog-and-pony show otherwise known as the Locations Trade Show, hosted by the Association of Film Commissioners International in Santa Monica, Calif., earlier this month. Production company scouts browsed booths and freebies -- including baseball caps from Michigan and candied pecans from Georgia -- from states hoping to "win" shoots on their home turf.
