[Wreck]

Originally Posted by Wingnatic

Lets keep in mind all the businesses that support the industry , hotels , catering , and everything else . My son did some '' extra's '' work on The Wannabe's '' in Howell , made $100 a day and out of that $100 came State taxes thats part of that deal , hire a certain % of Michigan residents

Or keep in mind that the industry helped support these businesses. There were tons of spending being done, and now that'll be long gone too. Im not disagreeing with you just kind of rewording it. As I agree with you, something many people in this post do not see, or just have yet to mention.

[scolls]

Originally Posted by TheEconomist

From the article, it seemed like the tax credits were just a way for the business to reduce its taxes. It didn't seem like the state was giving them money.

It isn't giving them money when they wouldn't come to the state in the first place without the reduced taxes. The governor did make a good point though when he said that the whole tax structure needs to be overhauled to made the state more friendly to business. But, low taxes for business is not in any way the public subsidizing business. That is a really antiquated notion that can drive down a whole economy if embraced by a majority.

It was a tax credit. If you spent 100 million on the filming the state would give you 42 million. At 42% it was breaking even. If you reduced the credit to 30%, you could still keep jobs, be competitive in the film industry, and make a little tax revenue. Snyder doesn't want any of that. He's a business man and Snyder wouldn't hesitate to move his company to a state that would give him a 42% tax credit, he just doesn't want to pay it.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by TheEconomist

From the article, it seemed like the tax credits were just a way for the business to reduce its taxes. It didn't seem like the state was giving them money.

It isn't giving them money when they wouldn't come to the state in the first place without the reduced taxes. The governor did make a good point though when he said that the whole tax structure needs to be overhauled to made the state more friendly to business. But, low taxes for business is not in any way the public subsidizing business. That is a really antiquated notion that can drive down a whole economy if embraced by a majority.

No, unlike tax credits (which are just discounts on the taxes you owe), the film industry receives tax rebates, or basically a check as a percentage of how much money they claim to spend on the production.

Downside is that the film industry has not invested much in the way of a sustainable industry here. There were may be a few permanent film studios that I'm aware of that have actually happened, but not a lot of hardcore bricks and mortar projects. Plus the "exposure" these films bring to Michigan is not always good exposure. Some of it is just perpetuating existing stereotypes about Michigan to the rest of the world. Anyone see the new Karate Kid and how it portrays Detroit? That investment alone probably ended up COSTING Michigan.

Worse than the film tax credits going away is the proposal to do away with Brownfield and Historic Tax Credits. We can pretty much kiss good bye any future attempts at cleaning up and revitalizing previous manufacturing sites. For a state that is trying to diversify away from manufacturing to more tech and service industry jobs, and trying to be MORE efficient, this sounds pretty asanine to remove all incentives for redeveloping urban sites that are ALREADY served by existing infrastructure, but are too contaminated to economically make sense for most businesses (without Brownfield credits to do the cleanup).

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Wreck

Or keep in mind that the industry helped support these businesses. There were tons of spending being done, and now that'll be long gone too. Im not disagreeing with you just kind of rewording it. As I agree with you, something many people in this post do not see, or just have yet to mention.

It is only a fraction of what the State spends to get them to make movies here.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by magellan

Worse than the film tax credits going away is the proposal to do away with Brownfield and Historic Tax Credits. We can pretty much kiss good bye any future attempts at cleaning up and revitalizing previous manufacturing sites. For a state that is trying to diversify away from manufacturing to more tech and service industry jobs, and trying to be MORE efficient, this sounds pretty asanine to remove all incentives for redeveloping urban sites that are ALREADY served by existing infrastructure, but are too contaminated to economically make sense for most businesses (without Brownfield credits to do the cleanup).

That is a shame, but they have to cut almost everything right now. There is no choice. Everyone is going ot dislike some of the cuts. However these credits did nto seem to be that effective. Cutting them is probably not going ot have that much impact. It did fund the restoration of some of the hotels downtown though and that is a good thing. Even if not economically beneficial to the State, turning derilect buildings back into historic landmarks and operating businesses is a good plan. we really need to bring Detroit back (or at least part of it) to make this region appealing. Without Detroit, we have no city.

[scolls]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

That is a shame, but they have to cut almost everything right now. There is no choice. Everyone is going ot dislike some of the cuts. However these credits did nto seem to be that effective. Cutting them is probably not going ot have that much impact. It did fund the restoration of some of the hotels downtown though and that is a good thing. Even if not economically beneficial to the State, turning derilect buildings back into historic landmarks and operating businesses is a good plan. we really need to bring Detroit back (or at least part of it) to make this region appealing. Without Detroit, we have no city.

If Granholm or another democrat governor were to propose the same budget as Snyder, it would be socialism since we are raising taxes. Snyder is no different than Granholm. It's just corporate welfare.

[Coldjensens]

All politicians are pretty mucht he same. They want control over our moeny. It is more a difference in what they spend our money on than whether they take our money.

If anyone thought that there would be a tax cut coming out of this election, then they were smoking too much of the newly legalized pot. Tax increases both State and federal are necessary. They are not going to close their doors and no one has the guts to make the cuts necessary to trim the budget down to match revenue.

Why don't they just tax the pot more?

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

That is a shame, but they have to cut almost everything right now. There is no choice. Everyone is going ot dislike some of the cuts. However these credits did nto seem to be that effective. Cutting them is probably not going ot have that much impact. It did fund the restoration of some of the hotels downtown though and that is a good thing. Even if not economically beneficial to the State, turning derilect buildings back into historic landmarks and operating businesses is a good plan. we really need to bring Detroit back (or at least part of it) to make this region appealing. Without Detroit, we have no city.

They were actually very effective, resulting in $Billions in bricks and mortar investments and tens of thousands of jobs. Just in Grand Rapids alone, I think since the mid-90's Brownfield and Historic Preservation tax credits have resulted in $1.5 Billion in redevelopment of contaminated sites and buildings and over 7000 jobs. Projects that most likely would not have happened without the tax credits (because it's just too expensive and litigious to take on that liability of cleanup).

So without the tax credits, the state would have gotten nothing, nada. Any percentage of $0 is still $0. At least with the tax credits, the local governments were able to capture new taxes from the workers and more economic spending. Oh wait, the local governments and business owners don't count. Just the corporate interests and large suburban counties that backed Snyder...

[actinic]

Darn it, I enjoyed paying a $100 tab and having Michigan taxpayers cover $42 of it!

Signed,

Hollywood Millionaire

[detwahDJ]

Why can the film industry prosper elsewhere but not here?