Jack Rodzik
April 28, 2011
Film Incentives
248-974-8926
WORD COUNT: 803
What is Wrong With Film Incentives?
LANSING – Mich., Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is working to decrease local film tax incentives, while the program succeeds. Snyder wants the state’s budget to be finalized before May 31, 2011, putting pressure on film advocates to inform the public of benefits.
Gov. Rick Snyder wants to put a cap on how much money can be given to companies who come to Michigan to film. As of now, there is no cap for the program, allowing for many opportunities, such as Scream 4, to spawn locally. The cap Snyder is looking to enforce would be $25 million, which may seem like quite a lot of money, but has made advocates of the film industry upset.
RicksWrong.com is a website dedicated to proving why Gov. Snyder’s actions could prove to be drastic error. On April 17, 2011 the website hosted a 12 hour webathon raising money to keep the film credit. The money raised by the webathon is being spent on advertising featuring local individuals who have benefited from the incentives, including those who have received jobs and careers.
With this website gaining attention, and as the public becomes educated, more people are jumping on board to keep the incentives high, after all, most of the time that is why companies choose to film where they film.
“Certainly not having any incentive put in place would make Michigan less competitive compared to states that do have incentive in place, “ said Michelle Begnoche, 28, Communications Advisor for the Michigan Film Office. “The fact of the matter is, this is an industry that is attracted to incentives and goes to where the incentives are.”
The Michigan Film Office does its best to educate the public of incentive spending as well as the benefits it yields. On their website you can find each annual report since 2008, when the incentives were first approved in April.
The annual reports the Michigan Film Office release show the benefits of having film incentives. The report is split up so that each total can be viewed separately, showing both direct and indirect gains for Michigan. In 2010,
Initial projections for film incentives were included in the 2008 report, which includes created jobs. In 2008 there were 1,102 jobs created and projected jobs for 2012 is at 2,922. So far it has created 3,867 jobs in 2009 and has hired 5,310 Michigan residents in 2010.
The filming industry in Michigan uses the Regional Modeling Incorporated’s (REMI) Policy Insight to gauge and understand the industry changes along with their policies. This technique is similar to how business is conducted in Louisiana and New Mexico, the two states along with Michigan that, according to the Michigan Film Office’s 2008 Annual Report, are the top three states to film in.
Michigan has also improved on creating a self-sustaining film industry, with five film studios placed throughout the state.
“Over the past three years, Michigan has built up a reputation where there is infrastructure in place,” said Begnoche.
The Michigan film industry was not always so successful, before the incentives of 2008, the state had very different statistics. According to a Michigan State University economic impact study, in 2007, only two films were made in the state, creating two million dollars in state expenditures where as in 2008 after the law had passed, 32 productions were finished creating almost $70 million in direct expenditures.
Before 2008, the future of film in Michigan looked unpromising, even for students graduating within the state with film degrees.
“I know when I was leaving it was basically this idea the whole market in Michigan was in shambles and they had this untapped market,” said Joshua Ginnard, a Film Production graduate from Grand Valley State University. “It’s a really great state to film in, they were trying to figure out some way to promote it.”
After finding a secure way to promote the industry Gov. Rick Snyder wants to put a cap on the growing market of film. The Senate wants to cap at $10 million. If that was not enough, the House Appropriations Committee continues to vote on the outcome of the film industry, Michigan’s House of Representatives wants to cut funding entirely, without informing the pubic of its benefits.
RicksWrong.com is putting together a large petition while its audience grows. The petition was made with the intent to secure Michigan’s film incentives, keeping and creating more jobs for those in need.
The Michigan Film Office remains positive no matter what the outcome. “Regardless of what happens with the film incentives themselves, the film office will still be here and we will still continue to do the work that we do to attract projects to Michigan and also to support our local filmmakers,” Begnoche said.
