The state's plan to bribe moviemakers dates back to 2002. That's exactly what's happening in Louisiana. "Otherwise you're just creating another division of the public sector." "In order for this to make sense, you have to be building an industry that will eventually stand on its own," says Susan Christopherson, a professor of city planning at Cornell University, who has been studying what the folks in Los Angeles call "runaway production" since the 1980s. In November a new study called on New York to rethink its program after finding that Albany gave away $374 million in film tax credits in 2013-21.5% of all tax credits offered by the state. It's not a break-the-bank number, but it is the kind of price tag that has led a number of states, including Arizona, Wisconsin and Connecticut, to slice programs amid questions of whether they were jump-starting an industry or just fattening filmmakers, with little long-term gain. Louisiana has been a stand-in for New York, Texas and Pennsylvania.Īccording to the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, putting on this buffet cost the strapped state treasury $168 million in 2012. Movies like Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Green Lantern and 21 Jump Street have been filmed there, as were TV shows American Horror Story and Ravenswood. In 2012 film and TV companies spent $717 million in the state, up 85% since 2010. Producers who once would have needed to bring hundreds of crew members out from Los Angeles can now bring just department heads and hire the rest of the crew locally. Just outside New Orleans producer Herbert Gains turned part of a sprawling NASA complex once used to build space shuttle fuel tanks into a 250,000-square-foot shooting facility where Summit Entertainment recently filmed the sci-fi flick Ender's Game. Intended as a way to draw industry to Louisiana's floundering economy, the result is a giveaway program that's created a gold rush for producers and sharp locals, but probably won't create permanent jobs like a real tax cut might.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |