Film students urge state to keep tax credit
The end of the state's film tax credit would affect much more than those directly involved in the movie-making process, a group of local film students and academics warned Monday.
The students, brought to the capitol by the industry group Massachusetts Production Coalition, urged lawmakers to retain the tax incentive program to allow the local film industry to expand.
Nerissa Williams, of Hyde Park, went to Los Angeles to "chase the dream" of becoming a film producer, but found herself excited to come home to Massachusetts when the industry began to pick up steam here. Now an Emerson College Film Production graduate student, Williams said she was convinced the Massachusetts industry was booming after coming home to visit her sister in the early years after the state began to incentivize film productions.
"So I went back to L.A., packed my bags and I came home. And that's why I want the tax credit to work, because more business will come, more films will come if they know there is an incentive for them as well," Williams said.
Williams was one of about a dozen film students to come to the State House Monday to make the case that academic film programs, many with internship placements, also benefit from the tax break by keeping students in the commonwealth.
"As a producer, I wouldn't go to a state that didn't have a tax credit," Williams said.
A poll by David Paleologos conducted Feb. 10 through Feb. 13 on behalf of the Massachusetts Production Coalition and obtained by the News Service shows that almost 60 percent of likely voters in Massachusetts agree that the tax credit is good policy because it brings jobs and new money into the state. Just under 27 percent of respondents think the credit is bad policy and costs more to the state than it's worth.
"There's widespread deep support for movie-making and TV production on a number of different levels," Paleologos told the News Service.
"And it was clear that 60 percent thought it's good policy," Paleologos said.
In his budget proposal, Gov. Charlie Baker recommended eliminating the $80 million film tax credit program. At a State House hearing on the plan earlier this year, Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash said tax dollars are going to "Hollywood moguls," and cited a Department of Revenue report that in 2012 only $50 million of the $304 million in spending generated by the film industry went to local vendors. The report also found that 74 percent of wages created by films went to out-of-state workers.
Chris O'Donnell from Local 481 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada told the News Service the DOR report doesn't take into account many of the positive things the film industry brings to the state.
"That is a flawed report. It is a report that does not take into the full account of the economic impact of the film tax credit program," O'Donnell said.
A spokesman for Ash said the Department of Revenue report does take the full measure of the tax credit's effectiveness and it's impact on job creation.
"We believe that the DOR report does assess the full economic impact, which is why the jobs numbers are so alarming," spokesman Paul McMorrow said.
McMorrow argues that two-thirds of the tax-discounted spending actually takes place outside of Massachusetts.
"There is so little film tax spending here in Massachusetts that you could literally spend it anywhere else in the economy and have the same results," McMorrow said.
Numerous film professors and students gathered in a fourth floor hearing room to advocate for the tax credit. Advocates say continuing to grow the industry will only boost the return on investment for the state as fewer personnel and less movie-making equipment needs to be brought in from out of state.
The House voted to retain the tax break in their budget plan last week after Rep. Angelo Scaccia put forward an amendment to abolish it, calling it "piggish" and characterizing the break as benefiting the rich instead of being put toward other state priorities.
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