This Georgia corruption story is so alarming and crooked that it took me a couple weeks of research to create the spreadsheet and explain the complex web of deceit.
Look forward to hearing the observations of fellow FReepers!
Ping, for your interest.
Interesting read, excellent presentation of research.
I’m left wondering which media corporations have benefitted the most.
Great presentation!
Maybe send this to Newsmax or some conservative news or blog site? All the research is done for them, which they like, will,save them,the trouble of doing it themselves. Who knows you knight even be invited on to talk about it if they find it intriguing enough to feature.
Unlike sports stadiums, there is no specific place you can point to and say "this is a temple of waste". All you get are a bunch of TV shows or movies with a peach logo and a "made in Georgia" line in the end credits. The ones I really remember are the Archer cartoons where the voice actors phone it in from wherever they live. I don't know if the animators live and work in Georgia. They might just have one file server in Georgia to count it as a Georgia production.
Repeat: Lower taxes is not a cost.
There is no reason to believe the taxes would be paid if the incentives were not in place.
Bmark
movies are being shot in GA because the taxes in CA are prohibitive, ie they don’t want to pay their fair share...
One more reason I'm happy to live in Florida with DeSantis at the helm...
Great Research - nicely put together - and could be a three part series. First then a recap and second - then a recap of the first two parts and the third. This is quality work pundit. You might be able to sell this to a medium sized paper. Have you been published before?
How many jobs were created? …….
Interesting question. They say that 92,000 were created.
Yet, only 2 or 3 weeks ago there was a story about a State House Rep wanting to cap the subsidy, Ralston and others having a baby over the proposed bill, and they were all complaining about the state losing 10,000 jobs.
Quite the difference between 92,000 and 10,000.
And I think just as importantly, how much tax revenue is generated from all of this. It’s insanely easy for companies to cook the books, with a 70k page tax code and an army of bean counters, lawyers and accountants. It’s funny to read and hear folks complain about Amazon, GE and other companies not paying taxes. Most folks are incapable of grasping tax deductions and business expenses.
Oh…..they made a movie in Georgia. Great. Georgia should be getting all sorts of tax revenue. NOPE. After our calculations we’ve learned that our expenses were actually slightly more than what we expected and therefore we need some Georgia taxpayer money. Otherwise we’re leaving.
So, some homeowner gets a break and they use the house for 5 days of filming. Homeowner gets paid. Homeowner has to report the income and pay taxes. Movie company writes off the business expense and pays no taxes on anything. Gets the tax money that the homeowner paid, back with the tax credit.
Great work if you can get it.