GRAND RAPIDS. About 120 people gathered for a noontime rally in support of Michigan’s film incentive, which pays up to 42 percent of a project’s production costs.
The rally was timed to coincide with an evening visit by GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder, who has been critical of the incentives.
Snyder has said publicly the incentives should be “reduced dramatically and then eliminated.”
But supporters of the incentives say incentives are working well and deserve more time.
“The incentives today have cost the state $70 million, and in return the state has reaped $350 million in spending,” said Deb Havens, co-chair of the West Michigan Film Industry Task Force. “Any stockholder that saw numbers like that, we’d have people dancing in the street.”
The rally speakers included Grand Rapids City Commissioner and sometime-actor James White, Hopwood DePree of the local TicTock Studios and a lineup of success stories.
Caterer Josef Van Horn talked about the five films he worked on, the 10 new employees he added during those times, and the new side business he started with money earned from the films.
Katie Miller of Gatehouse Suites, an extended-stay hotel on the East Beltline, saw her occupancy rate rise from 62% in 2008 and 2009 to more than 90% this summer.
And Stasia Savage of IATSE 26 said, “Two years after signing these incentives, there are hundreds of people making a living in this industry. “On a film with a budget of about $1 million, the lowest one of her members will make is $17.39 an hour plus benefits.”
Savage said it’s the equivalent of driving a truck full of cash into the city and starting to hand it out.
“That is seriously what is happening in this community,” she said. “And it’s going to you and you and your friends and neighbors.”
The incentives need a few more years, said Patrick Zeigler of Enthusiastic Productions, producers of a TV show on the Hope College campus. Pulling out now would be like “raising an infant for three years and then saying, ‘I’m done with you,’ ”
Malinda Petersen started her talent agency because of the incentives. She said she was about to book four of her actors for a Hallmark film and had signed actors for “Detroit 1-8-7,” which is bringing “a lot of sustainable income to state,” she said.
“Incentives make my job and the actors’ jobs possible,” she said. “I now represent 300 actors. These actors need an infrastructure.”
Havens stressed that when the incentives were passed, the vote was nearly unanimous with bipartisan support. She encouraged people to find that support again.
“Let’s have less politics and more jobs in Michigan,” she said. “Who’s in favor of that?” ? Reported by The Grand Rapids Press
