State officials hope to lure more television series to film in Massachusetts, using the state's generous tax breaks as bait, and the once-fierce opponents of tax breaks for movie moguls are nowhere to be seen.
The fate of Massachusetts film tax credit had been hotly debated in recent years, with House leaders defending the program against Gov. Charlie Baker and the Senate, who said the tax break was a bad deal for local taxpayers.
But the war over the film tax credit appears to be over, with local production houses and the companies that contract with them coming out on top.
Tom Derian's Wilmington cleaning company does a lot of work cleaning up movie sets. He says the surge of Hollywood money goes across the economic spectrum.
“The last movie I was on they took over half of Chinatown, and I’m thinking ‘what did that cost?’ And it cost! It’s not cheap," Derian said.
The tax credit pays a quarter subsidy for every dollar film companies spend in Massachusetts. That 25-percent-off deal amounts to around $100 million dollars a year from taxpayers, but advocates say the growing industry is a net positive for the state.
Nancy Kannel runs a charity in northern Mass that provides low-income families with furniture. Kannel said that some of the biggest rewards of local film production are reaped by social causes.
“We got a very expensive dresser from Equalizer 2, and we were able to sell it and buy 32 beds for children sleeping on the floor. So one dresser, 32 beds. That is money that hard to come by for us," Kannel said.
Gov. Charlie Baker entered office hoping to eliminate the tax credit and use its funds to increase tax breaks for poor working families. Opponents say the break is a give-away for California companies with little economic impact staying in the Commonwealth.
In 2015, Baker proposed phasing out the tax credit over two years and was defeated when lawmakers delivered a final budget plan keeping the tax break intact. The next year, Baker offered a plan to cap the amount projects can benefit from the incentive. That plan also hit a brick wall in the House.
The Senate too, has tried to limit the the tax break, only to be rebuffed by the House each year.
That opposition, including Baker, hasn't put up a fight this year, meaning the tax credit seems here to stay. With the tax credits fate seemingly the most stable it's been in years, long-term TV productions can commit to multi-year shoots, a goal of Massachusetts Production Coalition, an alliance of producers, unions and ancillary businesses that benefit from movie and TV shoots. Advocates for the tax break say they'll next try to make the program permanent by removing it's scheduled 2023 expiration.
Though opposition to the tax has receded, it's a still a target for any advocacy group that thinks they have a better idea with what to do with it's $100 million. With Beacon Hill's tight budget crunch and "how are you going to pay for it?" attitude applied to any new program or service, the film tax credit could still come under fire if support erodes or lawmakers come around to the idea that it's fund could be put to better use elsewhere.
WGBH productions benefit from the tax credit.
