What is it about subsidizing Hollywood that politicians find so irresistible?
Like many New Yorkers, we were surprised when Jimmy Fallon won a lucrative tax credit to film “The Tonight Show” in New York — even though later stories confirmed Fallon never had any intention of doing the show from LA.
We hoped our friends across the Hudson would’ve seen this and learned from our bad example. Turns out they did see. Unfortunately, they took the wrong lesson.
The state Senate has just approved a bill that would increase Jersey’s film-tax-credit program from $10 million to $50 million. The bill now moves to the Assembly.
It’s worth remembering how this whole film tax credit started.
A recent Crain’s dispatch noted New York’s program began in 2004, “when real-estate developer Douglas Steiner opened a studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, only to discover few wanted to film there because of New York’s high costs.” Steiner rushed to Albany to seek relief — and got it.
Now the state hands out $420 million in credits each year.
Cut to New Jersey, a state in the midst of a financial crisis. In a letter to Trenton, the director of the New Jersey branch of Americans for Prosperity noted these film tax credits seldom produce the promised results.
He added: “Big Hollywood shouldn’t be getting a handout when we can’t even afford to pay our bills or make the required payments to our pension system.”
Gov. Christie vetoed a bill like this before, and we hope he’ll do so again if it makes it to his desk.
There’s no good reason the high-taxed people of New Jersey should have their dollars underwrite Hollywood.