Detroit Free Press: Michigan film subsidies were bad policy. Why is Lansing trying to revive them? | Opinion
Good Jobs First Research Analyst Jacob Whiton wrote about how film subsidies are not a viable economic development tool:
“A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Michigan’s House of Representatives is attempting to revive a subsidy program for film, television, and digital media production. The state’s original program was established in 2007 but wound down just eight years later in the face of mounting concern about its cost and lackluster record of stimulating growth and job creation.
Sponsors of the new legislation contend they’ve learned from the original program’s failures and incorporated best practices distilled from other states’ experience awarding film subsidies.
But these supposed improvements are a smokescreen that do not address the fundamental problem: State auditors and economists have consistently found such programs are expensive and seldom deliver on their over-hyped economic benefits, regardless of what form they take.”
Read the full Op-Ed in the Detroit Free Press.