Kinsley manages to make his point without even touching on the hypocrisy factor; the idea that one of the most anti-business/pro-tax-the-rich institutions in America wold run around with their wealthy hands out begging for tax cuts for their rich selves…
Michael Kinsley in Politico:
[A]sked by the Times for one piece of advice to give his successor as governor, [Bill Richardson] used the opportunity to beg for a continued subsidy of the film and television industry.
New Mexico under Gov. Richardson was a pioneer in this field. In 2002, it began offering a credit of 15 percent — later increased to 25 percent — of the cost of making a movie in New Mexico (not counting star salaries and the mite paid to writers). Now, 42 states have followed its lead. New York has gone as high as 30 percent. These credits can generally be transferred, saved or used for other things, so it’s no problem if a particular movie doesn’t make money.
In less than a decade, the absurd notion of welfare for movie producers has evolved from the kind of weird thing they do in France to an unshakable American tradition. “I’m proud that New Mexico has been a leader in this effort,” Richardson wrote. …
In any event, Richardson’s statistical claims are suspect, to say the least. He would not win an Oscar for math. He says that 10,000 jobs and $4 billion “are huge numbers for a state with a population of only about 2.1 million.” You can say that again. If Richardson’s figures were correct, if every state had a similar program (as 43 of them do), and if every program achieved the same alleged success on a per capita basis, that would mean film subsidies would be adding $600 billion to the economy over eight years and would have created 1.5 million jobs. Given that the entire movie production and distribution industry generates about $55 billion a year, it seems unlikely that this subsidy alone generates $75 billion a year (one-eighth of $600 billion) in new business. Similarly, it’s hard to see how the subsidy could add 1.5 million jobs to an industry that employs about 362,000 people
Read the full piece here.
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