Film crews filming the movie "Five Year Engagement" in Ann Arbor. Governor Snyder scaled back Michigan's film incentives to $25 million. Advocates are hoping for more.
People who work in Michigan’s film industry hope efforts to boost the incentives for TV, movie, and video productions are successful.
They say the recent $25 million cap on the incentives makes them too small to attract big productions.
Chris Baum helps market the state to Hollywood with Michigan Film First and Film Detroit.
Baum says the state does not have to be as generous as it has been in the past to movie-makers, but it still has to put more money into incentives if it’s going to build a movie industry here:
"It’s not brain surgery. We've invited an industry here. We've promised them that we wanted them here," said Baum. "We need to continue to giving them conditions that allow themselves to establish themselves here and then down the road, they'll be so comfortable coming to Michigan that we'll be able to pull back on the the incentives further."
Baum says Michigan needs to have at least $100 million available for incentives if it’s going to attract the big budget movies that generate the most economic activity.
State Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville is expected to unveil a plan this week to boost the state’s film incentives.
Governor Rick Snyder dramatically scaled back the incentives saying they offered a poor return to taxpayers.
It seems all but certain now that the film tax credit is dead. Governor Rick Snyder came to office saying he had a dim view of it, and that he was against the state trying to pick winners and losers.
That view does make some sense. My guess is that most of the major recent new industries, from camera phones to Google, wouldn’t have been immediately appreciated by governments.
Supporters of Michigan’s film industry are conducting an eleventh-hour push to convince Lansing politicians to keep the state’s generous film tax credit.
Nancy Skinner has been a vocal opponent of plans to scrap the credit and replace it with a much more modest grant program. She runs a Web site that’s brought in donations from thousands of people:
"And what we are trying to do is put names and faces to these numbers. The spreadsheet wars that are going on in Lansing? We want these folks to see the names and faces of people who will be affected by this."
The ads will run on Comcast cable channels over the next week. They emphasize the economic impact of the film industry, and the threat of a continued “brain drain” if the film industry pulls out of Michigan.
Just the threat of the elimination of Michigan’s 42 percent tax credit caused her to lose business, says Rose Gilpin. She and her partner Kathy Remski own Real Style Extras Casting:
"They evaporated immediately. Kathy and I right off the bat lost three projects in February right after the announcement was made. So immediately gone."
Legislation has been introduced to preserve the tax credit. The governor has proposed replacing the tax credit with grants totaling 25 million dollars for film and video projects.
Governor Rick Snyder’s proposal to get rid of the current film tax credit and replace it with a more modest grant program has met with a lot of resistance from the film community.
But now some film folks say they’re willing to compromise.
Since 2008, Michigan has offered up to a 42% tax credit for movies made here. That amounted to the state paying out $60 million last year.
More snow on the heels of more snow is bringing up talk of records in Michigan.
For the Detroit area, NOAA lists 1908 as the snowiest February on record when 38.4 inches fell in the area.
The Detroit News says this winter has been the second snowiest on record with a total of 30.3 inches falling in February.
The News spoke with Karen Clark, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service:
Clark said she doesn't think the rest of the month will be snowy enough to break the record. "Let's hope not," she said. "That would be a lot of snow in the next few days."
The Detroit News has some historical photographs of snowstorms past in an article from 2002.
What snow storms do you remember most? The blizzards of 1978 and 1979 come up a lot in our office.
Fighting for Film Incentives
Groups met last night to push the Michigan Governor and Legislature to reconsider cutting the Michigan Film Incentive tax credits.
Hulett covered a group meeting last night in metro-Detroit:
The message people need to deliver to Lansing, said Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom, is that the credits have created a rare bright spot in Michigan’s economy:
"This is not about saving Tom Cruise. This is about saving Tom Farmington Hills, and Tom Novi and Tom Detroit."
Hulett reports that "Governor Snyder wants to get rid of the tax credit and replace it with a program worth $25 million a year."
Here's a video of the meeting last night from Fox 2 News in Detroit:
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling gave a "State of the City" address last night, and like much of the state - and the country, for that matter - Walling talked cuts.
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling spent much of last night address talking about what’s working in his city. But he also talked about what he thinks would help the city deal with a growing budget deficit, ‘shrinking the size of city hall.’ Walling wants to drop funding for some city commissions and eliminate some executive positions.
"My proposed changes would save the city of Flint $6 million over 4 years. Over $15 million dollars over 10 years. Its not the whole solution. But its an important part of it. Its an important part that makes a difference."
The city of Flint wants to cover its $17 million budget deficit by raising funds on the bond market.
It has to get permission from the State Administration Board to do that. So far, the Board has tabled its decision.
If the city can't raise bond money, it might be facing bankruptcy or a state takeover.
Over a thousand people packed a metro-Detroit banquet center last night to try and rescue Michigan’s budding film industry.
They’re mounting a campaign to persuade Michigan’s governor and lawmakers to preserve tax incentives for filming in the state. For the past three years Michigan has had the most generous credit in the nation, at 42 percent. Governor Rick Snyder wants to eliminate the tax break.
Movie industry supporters are pulling together a campaign to persuade Governor Rick Snyder to reconsider his plan to slash the state’s film tax incentives. For the past three years Michigan has had the most generous credit in the nation, at 42 percent.
Actor Jeff Daniels and columnist Mitch Albom will headline a meeting tonight in Livonia to talk strategy.
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