Bad, bad governor. The new governor has proposed removing the tax incentives for movies filming in Michigan, despite all the great things that movie production brings to our state. And with this news, we've already lost our first blockbuster movie shoot - The Avengers was due to start filming here this summer. Now they're going somewhere else.
I have blogged several times about the thriving movie business in the state and the benefits, tangible and non-tangible, it brings to us. The photograph above is from the Transformers 3 shoot in Detroit last summer, which dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy and may, if this change to the tax code goes through, be our last big movie.
It's a shame because Michigan doesn't lose any money by giving this tax break. I think the governor thinks that if he removes this incentive, movies will still film here and just pay him more taxes. Ain't gonna happen. They'll go somewhere else.
And they already are.
Poor local businesses. I guess they don't get a vote. One of my favorite columnists, Mitch Albom, just wrote a piece in the Free Press slamming the governor for this shortsighted action:
"We look like fools. We built an industry, created jobs, saw buildings rise. And in a single moment, Rick Snyder slashed its head off. Unless state legislators show a spirit that our numbers-only governor does not, the movie and TV business is dead in Michigan."
Doesn't make any sense. But I think it plays to his base of support: "let's get those liberal Hollywood Types out of Michigan, no matter what it costs local businesses."
1 comment:
I heard about this. Snyder needs to take a deep breath and understand letters, not just numbers.
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