[Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that LBP's Tim Mathis wrote the report.]
Louisiana’s lawmakers must be seeing stars.
That would at least explain the continued push to lure Hollywood to Louisiana via tax credits, which according to the Louisiana Budget Project, is expensive and has done very little for the state’s economy.
LBP analyst Tim Mathis writes in a recent report that the Motion Picture Investor Credit has proven unsuccessful in creating permanent jobs, and for every $7.29 paid in credits, only $1 comes back to the state’s coffers.
That credit alone resulted in $85.2 million in losses in the state’s individual income tax revenue during the 2012 fiscal year. When you combine all the film tax credits offered by Louisiana, the amount in lost revenue for the 2012 fiscal year comes to a whopping $231 million. In the last 10 years, the amount in lost revenue caused by the state's film industry tax credits equals more than $1 billion.
What’s more, Mathis notes, is that the overwhelming majority of individuals to claim the credit – more than 90 percent – reported annual incomes of more than $250,000.
“Most people who claim the film credit buy them through brokers in $10,000 bundles from movie producers in order to offset the taxes they owe,” writes Mathis.
LBP director Jan Moller says the incentives Louisiana offers to the film industry are disproportionately increasing while budget cuts to education and health care keep coming.
“It’s a question of priorities and we think it’s probably time to start reigning in the cost of these subsidies,” Moller says. “The question is not whether we want the film industry here, the real question is what are we willing to pay to bring them here?”
The state launched the film industry subsidy program in 1992 under the notion that it would begin being phased out in 2010. Yet, state lawmakers had other ideas, and in 2009 passed legislation making the program permanent.
Click here and here for more on the Louisiana Budget Project’s stance on the incentives the state offers to the film industry.
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MAY 20 This post in Gambit tells of a benefit concert scheduled to raise money for the 19 people shot during a Mother's Day second line on Frenchmen Street in NOLA. Among them was Gambit blogger Deb Cotton, who spoke frequently about violence in the city and reported on the city's second line culture. Gambit's foundation, along with other NOLA non-profits, also is selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims.
MAY 20 Blogger Robert Mann is critical of the personal interest some legislators take in their work here, sharing the comments one NOLA solon made in explaining his decision to vote against a bill that would require people to stop discriminating against female workers. His wife might lose some salary, so he was going to have to vote against the equal pay bill, Conrad Appel said. Appel and everyone who heard him should have been ashamed, but they weren't, and that's what is wrong in that building, Mann argues.
MAY 20 American Press columnist Jim Beam writes about the budget again here, urging kudos for the House and its efforts to try to fix the budget as opposed to passing on a flawed and messy rubber-stamped document as it usually does. The Senate already is poo-pooing the effort, but instead Senators should be trying to find a way to improve it as well, Beam argues. He also has some predictions in here from LABI and CABL.
MAY 20 Here's a link to the photo gallery from Tulane's graduation this past weekend. Dr. John and Allen Toussaint played together and received honorary degrees. The Dalai Lama was so entranced by their performance he got up from his seat and walked across the stage to stand next to them. He even participated in a second line with his own personal, saffron-colored umbrella. To the graduates, he urged them to think about creating a peaceful, hopeful life and society.
MAY 20 This Picayune story questions the rhetoric of NOLA officials who say the city, aside from having a "murder problem," is safe. The talking points generally are that the criminals are killing each other, but everything else is OK. The police chief there says that even Lafayette is more dangerous than NOLA. But crime experts interviewed here say that NOLA's numbers indicate one of two things: either people are so used to violence they don't report it, or somebody's "fudging the numbers."
MAY 20 The Advocate's Mark Ballard writes about some of the background maneuvering that took place during the development of budget alternatives in the Legislature. From Rep. Joel Robideaux being called a "tax and spend liberal" to robo-call influence, Ballard lets us in on some of the work that happens behind the scenes but usually doesn't make it into the Advocate's daily coverage of the session.
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