Posted on 07/31/2010 9:56:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A year-old program granting movie studios tax breaks for filming in California has saved jobs and should yield two billion dollars in direct spending, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said.
In a statement released Friday, the governor said the program was "creating and retaining tens of thousands of jobs and generating spending in California."
"This is exactly why I fought so hard for tax credits in last year's budget," Schwarzenegger said. "Just the first two years of this incentive will generate two billion dollars in direct spending, with even more to come."
The program, passed last year, allows the state to give up to 200 million dollars in tax breaks to production companies in its first year, and up to 100 million a year thereafter through the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
It was intended to help the state battle its ballooning deficit and keep jobs and money from the massive movie industry in California.
In its first year, Schwarzenegger said, 77 projects benefited from tax breaks, including 51 feature films, seven television series and 14 made-for-television movies.
He said the program had generated over 730 million dollars in wages paid in-state and that beneficiary projects had hired 18,200 crew members, 4,000 cast members, and over 100,000 extras for movies and television series.
In recent years, production companies have flocked away from California and US entertainment industry capital Los Angeles, taking advantage of tax breaks offered by other states, including Georgia, Louisiana and New Mexico.
The Milken Institute estimated in a recent report that the state has since 1997 lost 10,600 jobs in the entertainment industry and another 25,000 jobs indirectly related to the industry, a total loss for the state of around 4.2 billion dollars.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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Maybe if they didn't make so many loser movies, they'd do better.. in the meantime, 'subsidize' 'em with tax credits.
Believe it or not the state of Michigan was giving movie producers huge tax incentives to film and produce there.
Reduce taxes and get more revenue. Doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that one out.
Wait a minute you libtard socialists? Isn’t this what you call “tax breaks for the rich”? Yes it most certainly is... and who produces most of these movies? Elitist, leftists with wealth! Let’s talk!......
Meanwhile, us schlubs pay the highest combined property, city, state and sales tax in the nation — by far.
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Who ever heard of such a ridiculous idea as tax cuts helping an economy? Where do they ever come up with such ideas? My gosh, somebody call Osambo! See if he has ever heard of this new stuff called “tax cuts”! My, what will they think up next? s
Typical Hollywood attitude, taxes for thee, but not for me.
“Of course, this is the same Hollywood film industry whose members fund causes and candidates that favor raising taxes on everyone else. The Motion Picture Production and Distribution industry last year gave $14 million in political contributions: 89% went to pro-tax Democrats. A few years ago, director Rob Reiner funded a successful California initiative to raise the state income tax rate to more than 10%. Unlike a film shoot, which can relocate on a moment’s notice, your average small businessman in Encino is stuck paying the highest tax rate in the country — at least until he gives up and moves to Reno”.
excerpt. read more here...3/14/2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB123698885439126181.html
Am I the only one to find this sentence to be wonky? This tax program is supposed to keep money from massive money industry? I thought they'd want to GIVE money to the industry, since it was distressed (at least, those in California) by the high taxes.
Yes, but they're not producing anything tangible that people really need -- so it's OK.
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