44 F
New York
Friday, March 29, 2024

NY to Film Industry: Tax Credits to Continue Despite Albany’s Call of ‘Cut!’

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to say “Cut!” to New York State’s film tax credits.

“The Senate’s position was very clear on Amazon, ‘We are against tax incentives to bring business to New York.’ That’s why Amazon is gone,” Cuomo said last week. “I can see them being wholly consistent, saying and ‘that’s why we’re against the film tax credit’ because it’s the exact same point.”

State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) made it clear she disagreed with Gov. Cuomo’s claim that the legislature would be in favor of allowing the popular incentives to run out. “This tax credit has a documented value year after year after year,” she noted in an interview aired on WNYC radio’s Brian Lehrer show. “It’s working, and the Senate is certainly not proposing ending this credit. The only one who suggested ending it was the governor.”

According to Cuomo’s office, the state spends

$420 million annually to offset costs for movie and TV projects.

Among those who want to see the the incentives done away with is Republican Sen. Bob Antonacci. He introduced a bill last week that would end, in stages, the program. “The overwhelming majority of project recipients would have filmed in New York without this credit,” reads a memo attached to the bill. “In addition, it disproportionately favors New York City. This legislation offers the alternative of a phase out of this tax credit.”

Cuomo has gone back and forth on the issue. As the New York Post has pointed out, Cuomo “has championed the program and even extended the initiative through 2022, back in April 2017. His one-time gubernatorial opponent actress Cynthia Nixon trash talked the tax incentives during the 2018 election cycle and took heat from film crew unions.”

“Few investments are more famously fraught with failure than making movies,” Reason.com recently opined. “That extends especially to states and localities that attempt to lure filmmakers to their locales via sexy and economically useless subsidies that end up costing far more than they generate in new business activity and tax revenue. As the Tax Foundation reported in 2012, film subsidy programs generate between 7 cents and 30 cents in return for each dollar spent, guaranteeing a massive loss to taxpayer for every tax credit, rebate, or other handout.

In 2014, Cuomo “championed the creation of the Central New York Film Hub near Syracuse with $15 million of taxpayer money,” Reason.com continued. “Who would have ever figured: Hollywood comes to Onondaga [County], right?” Cuomo said at the time, according to The New York Times. “You would have never guessed. But it has.” Cuomo also insisted that the studio would generate at least 350 good-paying jobs related to the film industry. Instead, the facility, which was owned by the state government, was just sold for $1.”

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -