REPORT: TAX INCENTIVES TO STUDIOS HURT TAXPAYERS

Big tax incentives being offered by states to Hollywood studios may look good to the producers, but to the states themselves? Not so much. LABizObserved.com cites a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that concludes that the revenue generated by movie productions shot in states offering subsidies falls short of the subsidies’ costs to taxpayers. The result is that those states wind up pulling money out of their public safety and community services budgets. The report accuses producers and state film offices of commissioning biased studies to back up their claims that the subsidies drive economic activity in the states. In reality, it says, they are a “wasteful, ineffective, and unfair instrument of economic development.” In a statement on Wednesday, the Motion Picture Association of America called the report’s results “politically motivated” and “slipshod.”