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Guv responds to candidates’ views on film incentives
Bill Richardson
A day after both candidates seeking to replace him commented publicly on the state’s film incentive program, Gov. Bill Richardson wants to clarify a few points.
Here’s the statement I received today from Eric Witt, the governor’s advisor on film and media industries:
“We are pleased that both gubernatorial candidates recognize the success of the film industry in New Mexico and its growing importance to a broad spectrum of our economy. Two points of clarification should be made regarding the post. First, the current administration has been entirely consistent regarding data on the economic impact and job growth attributable to the state’s film industry. Rather, it is a group of critics of the film industry who do not and cannot seem to offer consistent or even supportable empirical evidence of the industry’s effect to back their critiques; they’re all over the place in terms of “data,” which is not surprising given that their opposition is largely political in nature, and not reflective of the actual underlying economics.
“Second, other commonly cited so-called “studies” of the state’s film industry are fundamentally incomparable to the Ernst & Young study in terms of scope, methodology, and applicability to New Mexico’s specific (and unique) incentive structure. I laid this out in a recent piece published in the Albuquerque Journal, which can be found here: http://www.abqjournal.com/biz/1441727biz06-14-10.htm.
“Thank you for the opportunity to clarify these important distinctions as the campaign season moves forward.”
Read the gubernatorial candidates’ thoughts here. For more on the debate about the film incentives, click here, here and here.
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Meanwhile: “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn” will be released as two separate movies that will be shot back to back (possibly in 3D), most likely in the state of Louisiana. This is a direct result of the tax credits that the state offers, which include a 30% transferable incentive for total in-state expenditures related to the production of a motion picture. Reportedly each of the “Breaking Dawn” films will have a $100 million production budget and their producers, who would benefit greatly by filming in Louisiana, are in the midst of negotiations with the state’s film commission. ‘The Twilight Saga’ May Be Hollywood’s Most Successful Film Franchise (http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2010/07/06/twilight-successful/).
Here is Robert Tannenwald, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, on Massachusetts’ Film Tax Credits – enlightening! It could be true of New Mexico since we do not have “the empirical evidence of the industry’s effect” on jobs in New Mexico.
http://www.centeronbudget.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3111
Here is an excellent report on “Movie Production Incentives” by the Tax Foundation. I think we need to re-visit MPI’s. We should worry about New Mexico not the film industry. Let’s use due diligence in this matter. There should be an audit of this program, and the New Mexico State Auditor’s Office has stated to me that they will do an audit. Hopefully they will do a comprehensive audit of this program.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr173.pdf