Michigan Movie Studio Gets Tax Breaks, but Results in Few Jobs (original) (raw)

U.S.|Michigan Town Woos Hollywood, but Ends Up With a Bit Part

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/us/when-hollywood-comes-to-town.html

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Michigan Town Woos Hollywood, but Ends Up With a Bit Part

Dec. 3, 2012

PONTIAC, Mich. — Even the great and powerful Oz could not save the film studio that was supposed to save this town.

The studio, a state-of-the-art facility fit for Hollywood blockbusters, had risen from the ruins of a General Motors complex here. It was the brainchild of a small group of investors with big plans: the studio would attract prestigious filmmakers, and the movie productions would create jobs and pump money into the local economy. A glamorous sheen would rub off on this down-on-its-luck town.

But in Pontiac, happy endings do not usually come Hollywood-style. The tale behind the studio, though, was cinematic in its own right, filled with colorful characters, calls from the White House and a starring role for Michigan’s taxpayers. Rounding out the cast was a big-budget Disney movie, “Oz: The Great and Powerful.”

It all started back in August 2007, when Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm met with Mike Binder, a Michigan-born actor and director who was lamenting the state’s lackluster program to award financial aid — otherwise known as film credits — to the movie industry. Ms. Granholm, an aspiring actress when she was in her early 20s, became determined to make Michigan competitive, she recalled.

Eight months later, the capital of the flailing auto industry became the capital of film tax credits. For every dollar spent locally, filmmakers would receive almost half back from Michigan. That sort of money turns heads at even the richest film studios, and word spreads fast. Janet Lockwood, the director of the state’s film office, said that a week after the enhanced credits were announced, she was besieged at a movie conference in Santa Monica, Calif., by “the baby studios to the big guys.”

Hollywood may make movies about the evils of capitalism, but it rarely works without incentives, which are paid for by taxpayers. Nationwide, about $1.5 billion in tax breaks is awarded to the film industry each year, according to a state-by-state survey by The New York Times.

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