Mis-Adventures in Michigan Film Making

Back in April, the Michigan legislature passed Bill 5841, which would offer tax incentives to film makers who chose to use the state as a sound stage. Vigorous proponents included author Mitch Albom and actor Jeff Daniels. Their idea was to lure film makers into helping with the metamorphosis of Michigan as the new Hollywood. Governor Jennifer Granholm jumped on the bandwagon with all the other state legislators who saw stars in their eyes.

Puh-leeze.

There are several reasons why I take issue with this flawed piece of legislation.

While Michigan offers glorious scenery as well as gritty industrial back drops, bribing people to come here for the sole purpose of movie making just doesn't sit well with me. For one thing, incentives include up to a whopping 42% rebate to producers.

This means that a film like Transformers, partially filmed in Detroit, and at an expense of $100 million dollars, could reap a reward of $40 million from the state. They are actually talking about cutting checks to film producers! Meanwhile, Michigan businesses that chose to stay (or are perhaps trapped) in this depression of a state have been socked with a new and prohibitive business tax. The fortunate few with savvy accountants have relocated to towns across the border in Ohio or Indiana just for the tax incentive.

Film crews, who spend little time (and even less money) here, don't deserve a tax break of this proportion. Movie producers are not invested in this state. They don't care about our schools, our roads, our declining economy and our incredibly high unemployment rates. They don't even care about our delinquent mayors. They are here for a couple of days or weeks, and then they pack up their video equipment and leave.

I am reminded of this because yesterday I opened up our local Royal Oak paper to find a front page story on how Sigourney Weaver and her Lifetime Movie Channel film crew spent two days in the downtown area filming some shots for the movie Prayers for Bobby. Royal Oak's contribution was the staging of a gay pride parade in San Francisco, with our mayor, Jim Ellison, prominently featured with Ms. Weaver.

I live in Royal Oak, and San Francisco is my Wanna-be-Second-Home. I can tell you that there is no way you can mistake one city for the other. Even a blind man can make the distinction. Our streets are wide; our buildings are short and squat. There are eighteen buildings for sale or lease in the one mile span from my house to my office. We are nowhere near the "cool" quotient of City by the Bay. (Not to worry. Later in the article, the director informed the newspaper that the viewer won't be able to tell the difference in the finished product.)

We are obviously a state struck by stars and the false promises of the economic "stimulus" this tax break will supposedly provide. Even our media is jumping on board, eager to rub elbows with Hollywood.

I wish everyone would get a grip and come back to Earth.

Michigan. This is the only state in the union that could brazenly throw money away, and it's money that it just doesn't have. The fiscal year isn't up yet, but already there are rumblings that the state is $400 million in the red. The end of the last fiscal year almost brought the government to a complete stop.

I bet those film makers are laughing all the way to the bank.