Independent movie producer Susan Moses said she will find another location for her $6 million, independent sci-fi movie, “Nephilim,” if Wisconsin’s 25% tax credits and other incentives are eliminated.
In his 2009-2011 budget address on Feb. 17, Gov. Jim Doyle proposed replacing the film tax credit and other incentives with $500,000 grants that would go exclusively to projects that create permanent state jobs.
Doyle’s plan would kill Wisconsin’s hard-earned incentives which are providing a badly-needed statewide job and infrastructure stimulus ? but not without a fight.
Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, an early proponent of Film Wisconsin tax incentives, and Sen. Ted Kanavas, author of the tax incentive bill, plan to fight for the incentives to be included in the budget during upcoming deliberations.
Film Wisconsin is urging for a letter writing and phone call campaign to finance committee co-chairs and state representatives to convince to retain the film incentives.
What might have motivated Gov. Doyle was “a lot of fuzzy math on the part of the Dept. of Commerce in estimating the cost of the rebate to ?Public Enemies,'” said Dave Fantle of Visit Milwaukee, a Film Wisconsin board member.
The Dept. of Commerce report stated that of the $5 million “Public Enemies” spent in the state, $4.5 million was rebated to the movie.
The report insinuated that the rebate enriched director Michael Mann and paid for star Johnny Depp’s hair stylist, which is universally known to be a below-the-line union function.
According to an MPAA report, however, and ignored by the Dept. of Commerce and Gov. Doyle, Universal Studios’ spent $18 million in Wisconsin. It paid $7.4 million to Wisconsin residents and vendors, and created 1,600 jobs during “Public Enemies'” three month shoot in the state.
“The Commerce Department doesn’t factor in any of the advantages of ?Public Enemies’ and other movies filming in the state,” said Fantle.
“Benefits such as income taxes derived from local residents who worked on the film, thousands of jobs realized, entrepreneurial opportunities created, money spent on infrastructure and college programs expanded to include training in visual media production.”
Since the incentives bill was passed in 2006, eight features, including “Public Enemies,” were filmed in the state, along with more than a dozen TV shows, a TV pilot and several national TV commercials.
