The Rubes in L.A. City Hall Have Swallowed Hollywood's Hard-Luck Story

Remember when Hollywood liberals claimed to care about the world's poor? Man, those were the days.

Now the richest people in Southern California, who sit on top of a booming $35-billion industry, are using their impressive political clout to punish the struggling citizens of South Africa, Mexico and Romania for having the nerve to think that their tiny domestic film industries could so much as bite Hollywood's ankles. And our politicians are falling all over each other to service Hollywood's poor and huddled masses, doling out heaps of protectionist corporate welfare that our government cannot begin to afford.

In Los Angeles, Mayor James K. Hahn chose the latter stages of his grim runoff campaign to blurt out a harebrained proposal for the city to give filmmakers up to $625,000 each time they make the brave decision to locate a production in the movie capital of the world.

The subsidies would amount to $15 million a year in cash giveaways to an industry that has managed to survive for 100 years without them. This from a city that is facing a structural deficit of $300 million ("structural" being government-ese for "too big to actually fix"). Last November, Hahn's City Hall dished up a slab of pork to Hollywood when it granted a tax exemption for film industry workers who earn up to $300,000 a year, and a targeted tax break for productions costing less than $12 million.

It's important to note that the politicians are trying to fix something that isn't broken. According to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., the nonprofit organization that coordinates shooting in Los Angeles, local film production reached an all-time high in 2004, up 19% over 2003.

According to the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., the nonprofit organization that coordinates shooting in Los Angeles....

Now that's a very provocative statement.........

The IRS is conducting a nationwide investigation into non-profits. 501C's are used to run just about every kind of fraudulent accounting schemes, some observers say.

Legal fees, a line item in most non-profit accounting reports, are well-used money laundering schemes that evade US taxes and use fraudulent accounting techniques to violate US banking and SEC laws.

N/P's use several tax dodges. Many nonprofits, and their donors profit through loopholes amid concerns that NPO's juggle the books. One notorious N/P was paying for the director's housing sub rosa.

We need to determine whether the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. is cooking their books, and whether they fraudulently filed false documents and whether they misled state and federal agencies.

We need to know whether the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. made accurate statements about income and outgo.

The IRS should determine whether corporate contributors to Entertainment Industry Development Corp. misused corporate reserve accounts, concealing losses, inflating asset values and improperly accounting for transactions, as well as deferring profits into reserve accounts, improperly shifting capital funding to other projects to hide illegal payments, and so on.

Any of these practices could jeopardize the financial interests of stockholders and would compel the SEC to step in.

The IRS should determine whether the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. is properly accounting for all its tax-exempt activities, whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether it is using income for the purposes stated.

We need to know whether the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. is engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices.

Anyone with concerns about these issues should contact the SEC here: enforcement@SEC.gov.

"We need to determine whether the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. is cooking their books, and whether they fraudulently filed false documents and whether they misled state and federal agencies."

OFF-TOPIC, BIG time and WRONG.

No. This is NOT about the income tax. It's about the local governments' willingness to take tax money from ordinary citizens and give it to totally unworthy less-than-ordinary citizens with big egos, big PR firms, big businesses, and GREAT BIG PRO-BUSYBODY MOTORMOUTHS.

The INCOME TAX should DIE and NEVER be used again for ANYONE'S personal agenda, YOURS OR mine.

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