Bills Would Demand More Info From Filmmakers Getting Special Tax Breaks

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 6/9/2010 | Tom Gantert

[MichCapCon]

A Mackinac Center for Public Policy story that looked into a questionable land deal has prompted two politicians to create legislation to bring more transparency in the state agency overseeing it.

State Reps. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, and Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, said they are planning bills to address the Hangar42 Studios controversy.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Kathy Hoekstra and Michael LaFaive uncovered an oddity in the tax incentive deal involving Hangar42 Studios.

The studio was in line for a refundable infrastructure tax credit worth 25 percent of the investment in the project in Grand Rapids. But as late as February, the facility — located on the site of a former Lear Corp. manufacturing facility — had been listed by a realtor for $9.8 million. It raised a question: Why would investors pay $40 million for a building that did not sell when listed for a quarter of that price?

Additionally, contractors hired to help convert the property into a studio said they had not been paid and there were six liens outstanding.

"I'm not surprised, but I am startled by the audacity of their claims to secrecy," said LaFaive, the Mackinac Center's fiscal policy director.

Said McMillin: "This idea that we aren't going to tell you — what arrogance. It just doesn't make sense."

McMillin's bill would not allow tax credits to be awarded until the vendors had been paid.

Agema's bill would allow for tax documents filed by film companies to be open for public inspection so the public can see how their tax dollars are being spent. Under current law, this is confidential information.

"It probably had a good intention," Agema said. "Now it has become, 'I'm going to cover our ass because we did something that we probably shouldn't have done.'" ...

[GeronL]

here is an idea. Stop giving them special tax breaks.

[TigersEye]

Rich, evil capitalist film makers should have their take home pay capped at $200k and the rest confiscated to feed the hungry. Ask Rosie 0’Donuts. She knows that communism is the ANSWER.

[SunkenCiv]

These tax breaks are part of the welfare for the rich leftists that stems from having a commie carpetbagger for a governor. The lilies

• BP eyes showdown with US govt on liability-BP source

Apropos of nothing, some lines from "The Trouble with Tribbles":

Spock: There's something disquieting about these creatures... They remind me of the lilies of the field. "They toil not, neither do they spin." But they seem to eat a great deal.