Where’s the Oscar for the taxpayers who funded so many films?

New York Post ^ | 02/25/2019 | Pat Garofalo

[SeekAndFind]

When the Oscars 2019 are handed out this weekend, some important players are sure to go unrecognized: US taxpayers. That’s a shame. After all, they paid to subsidize many of the movies that will take home the biggest awards.

Of the Best Picture nominees, “Black Panther,” “A Star is Born,” “Vice” and “Green Book” all feasted on tax breaks from states they filmed in. Just about every year, the bulk of the films in the Best Picture category have some of their bills covered by taxpayers.

Cities and states spend tens of billions annually subsidizing corporations that do everything from sell sneakers to help you shop online. And one of the most favored industries is movie production, because it brings star power to a state.

Total spending on tax credits for film production tops $1 billion annually. (New York alone sets aside $420 million a year. A report this week found 43 productions hauled in $1.2 billion between 2015 and mid-2018.)

What are states buying with that money? Politicians and big movie producers say economic activity, jobs and more. That’s fiction, though.

The first explicit tax break for movie production was created in Louisiana in 1992, but movie subsidizing really took off when that state expanded its program in 2002, and found success bringing big Hollywood productions to the south. By 2009, 44 states and the District of Columbia had some sort of film incentive program, as did Puerto Rico and the US government.

There are several reasons why these programs don’t work as advertised. The first is that, by nature, film jobs are temporary. Work on every motion picture has an end date, and even TV shows can spend months, if not years, between filming sessions.

[SeekAndFind]

There’s also no guarantee those jobs go to local residents or the unemployed: Many productions fly in specialists to handle specific tasks, and employing a local police officer as a security guard during her off hours or bringing in a hairdresser for some extra work isn’t creating a permanent new job.

Plus, some portion of the credits inevitably goes toward perks for big-time actors who populate the silver screen. For example, Missouri taxpayers subsidized the installation of satellite TV in Ben Affleck’s hotel room during the filming of 2014’s “Gone Girl.”

[Josa]

They are also costs to businesses who see reduced sales because of filming blocking access for customers.

[Don Corleone]

If you thumbed through the Tax Codes millions of lines you would find countless special provisions encoded to benefit certain productions, if not by name specifically then by some other exclusive setting. Bribing the congress critters is a well developed art form in its own right.

[Rurudyne]

Just a thought: how often does an unpopular film get critical acclaim? A film the critics hate becomes beloved?

The Oscars are the film industry patting itself on the back for being soooooooo talented or patting the film industry patting itself on the back for making social commentary.

I expect nothing better. Bob Hope as MC defined the limits of when I would watch.

So what would they call the award in question? The “City that Sucked Up to Us the Most”? The “Subsidies Most Deserved” award?

[Rusty0604]

Get AOC on the case.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

There’s also no guarantee those jobs go to local residents or the unemployed: Many productions fly in specialists to handle specific tasks, and employing a local police officer as a security guard during her off hours or bringing in a hairdresser for some extra work isn’t creating a permanent new job.

On the other hand, I've heard industry people in L.A. wondering if they should just buy a house and move their families to Atlanta, since that's where they're working all the time now.

[GOPJ]

Amazon really would have brought jobs and cash to New York... but the Woody Allen movies? No way...

[for-q-clinton]

This is AOC thinking that drove Amazon out.

Having said that are tax breaks given for kickbacks to politicians or are they given for economic reasons? That makes a big difference.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The Oscars are the film industry patting itself on the back for being soooooooo talented or patting the film industry patting itself on the back for making social commentary.

Every industry has its awards. The real question is why the film industry trade award show gets so much attention and national television, while the Materials Research Society Annual Awards, or the Food Service & Suppliers Tabletop Awards, or the Dairy Herd Management Innovation Awards do not. The answer, of course, is that people like to look at movie stars over dairy herd management innovators, and the networks realized they could monetize that.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Pardon my ignorance. I know nothing of these details. But, isn’t it quite expensive to pack up and go shoot movies on location somewhere, as opposed to filming on established sound stages , or established outdoor locations in the LA area? Then is this where the tax credits come in, because they help defray the costs of shooting on location?