Turns out some corporate tax breaks are good.
Mayor de Blasio said Friday that city and state tax incentives for the film and TV industry were worth keeping — because they’re successful.
“I think the current tax structure is correct — I think it’s worked,” he said at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, where he named Public Broadcasting exec Cynthia Lopez as his new theater, film and TV czar.
The mayor said the production perks had served to create jobs and increase tax revenues.
“In other areas, we see an unfortunate history of the subsidies not yielding results,” he added. “This is the polar opposite — this is an incredible good-news story.”
During his campaign for mayor last year, de Blasio railed against his Republican opponent’s fiscal plan for offering too many corporate tax breaks.
He also opposed what he saw as an overly generous incentive to move Fresh Direct from Queens to The Bronx, rather than having the firm flee to New Jersey.
De Blasio also suggested the city has the upper hand in the pending bidding war over which city will serve as the backdrop to CBS’s “Late Show.”