i was looking through different states incentives, and michigan’s don’t seem that much better than any other. am i missing something or are we just behind on offering the incentive. there are actually a number of places to shoot that are suitable. or is it just the fact that MI had such a singular economy, that any investment in movies looks like a huge impact?

The state’s looking at a budget deficit of well over a billion dollars and is shelling out upwards of 100 million for film production. What’s difficult to gauge is what kind of revenue the state is getting in return for its “investment” it is almost certainly not breaking even on it. However, there are early stage discussions of building permanent full size production facilities in the metro area. One in Southfield, one in Allen Park, both with the potential to employ about 3,000 people. This would be a major, major victory for those communities. But ultimately, yes it is being subsidized by the state, while the state is cutting every other budget from Education to Medicaid to Community Health.

The question of how to approach economic development is a really difficult one. There are some that argue that if you simply lower your tax burden your economy will grow organically, there is probably some truth to that. But the vast, vast majority of state’s use agressive tax incentives to try and attract businesses and industries to their states. The Film industry is simply not an industry that is going to grow from within an economy.

For what it’s worth, I think Michigan has to be more agressive than other states in attracting new industries because it is so heavily reliant on the auto industry. If the state had been this agressive 20 years ago in diversifying the economy maybe we wouldn’t be in the predicament we are in now.

There doesn’t seem to be much of a chance that the film credits are going away in the next 18 months. The Governor has been a vocal supporter of maintaining the incentive. I haven’t heard any of the gubenatorial candidates share their view but obviously things could change dramatically following 2010.