Posted on 06/25/2014 10:42:55 PM PDT by JohnKinAK
The Alaska State Troopers' reality show is coming to an end.
Troopers director Col. James Cockrell on Tuesday emailed Department of Public Safety employees announcing the state has decided not to participate in another season of "Alaska State Troopers," the popular, "Cops"-style series on National Geographic, said trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.
"DPS has decided to end the production after this season after five years of filming with (production company) PSG Films," Ipsen wrote in an email. "This decision was not reflective of PSG Films or the quality of their product. It was just time to focus on the job of providing public safety without any added outside distractions."
Cockrell did not rule out resuming the series "in a couple of years if there is a desire among DPS to begin another chapter."
The state received no money in return for allowing film crews to follow members of the statewide police force as they made arrests in cities and villages across Alaska, although the show is buoyed by state subsidies. The first season aired in 2009, arriving early in the current wave of Alaska-based reality shows.
Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2014/06/25/3534345/state-pulls-plug-on-alaska-state.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Trust your judgment on that one friend. Never saw it but knew it existed.
subsidizing TV shows with tax dollars should be a crime
I’m surprised the state gets no money from the show. I wonder if that’s true of the other various “Cops” type shows as well? Seems like a raw deal. They provide the content— they should expect some compensation.
The state subsidized the show, much less got nothing.
Okay here’s the convoluted way the State “Subsidizes” TV and Movie productions.
The Production company applies for a Tax Subsidy, and if they’re approved they get a voucher for x amount of Tax Dollar exemptions. Since there is very little tax burden for them to begin with in Alaska, they then sell the voucher to one of the Oil Producers (the people who pay 90% of taxes in Alaska) for say 25% below its face value. The oil company then turns in the tax exemption to save money. The TV/Movie production essentially films for free and the oil company saves a little on their state production taxes.
It’s a huge waste of tax dollars.
The State gave $6 million for “Frozen Ground” with Nicholas Cage and it went straight to video. Probably less than $2 million was actually spent in Alaska, most paying the big stars.
Pure insanity.
And yet somehow this is what gets politicized
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/263344/uh-oh-problematic-tax-breaks-sarah-palins-alaska
The “payment” the state gets from those shows is the constant hammering into the heads of the sheep to remain good grazers and don’t stray off the farm...
The show will not be missed. I rarely ever watched.
One TV show in which the wages paid to Alaska residents exceeded the wages paid to Outsiders is “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” in which $1.1 million was paid to Alaska residents and $1 million was paid to Outsiders. The subsidy to “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” was $1.2 million.
The producers spent $367,000 on instate transportation and $424,000 on food and lodging.
On “Deadliest Catch,” there is little money paid to Alaska residents. The state subsidy for season seven was $786,000, but only $44,000 was paid in wages to Alaskans. The wages to Outsiders were $1.3 million. The TV show spent close to $1 million more on food, lodging, locations, transportation and “other expenses.”
On “Deadliest Catch,” season six, the wages paid to Alaskans totaled $19,000, while $1 million was paid to people from Outside.
The first season of “Alaska State Troopers” qualified for a subsidy of $30,709. The show paid no money to Alaska residents and $66,204 to people who are not from Alaska. The second season also shows no wages and salaries to Alaskans and a subsidy of $93,000.
The state subsidy for “Ice Road Truckers,” season five, was $492,000. The Alaska wages were $295,000. The show spent more than a half-million on location expenses, food and lodging, etc. For season four, the show received a subsidy of $899,000 and paid $103,000 in wages to Alaskans and $1.3 million to Outsiders.
On every production there are expenses for food, lodging, transportation and locations, but the major costs are wages and salaries.
Without getting into the particulars, my daily routine was impacted by a commercial ( of some note that never aired ) for a day.
* Huge crew maybe 50 people
* disrupted the routine of the physical plant for their needs
* Breakfast and Lunch Buffet on site by Caterer, in all fairness, they invited us in the area to partake after they were fed, their was that much food.
* Spoke with a makeup artist, loved the job and noted she had to join the Union.
* Did I mention they were all Union "Grips" if you will....
So the question begs, are all these State Subsidies for these shows are not a Legislator / Governor based bone throw to the Film Unions....
Two of the officers were murdered in May.
Do you have anything to support that claim? Sound a lot like BS.
A friend, who watches the show, told me all Alaska had was a bunch of criminals up there.
My State Representative is my source, it was talked about at a townhall.
Also read the last bullet point under program processes tab on the website which reads:
“The awarded film tax credit certificate is immediately available for purchase by a person or entity with a tax liability in Alaska. Utilization of a film tax credit is now available against eight state tax types.”
http://www.film.alaska.gov/incentives/
Utilization of a film tax credit is now available against eight state tax types.
From your link, none of the credits would be applicable to an oil company.
I have decided not to watch TV anymore.
Two reasons. I can’t afford it and there is not much to watch that is worth it in the first place.
Who do you think pays taxes in Alaska? Its the oil companies.
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