On Wednesday, the film tax incentive passed out of Senator Melvin’s committee in a 5-0 vote. The widely unpopular bill was assigned to two committees and is not expected to make it out of the Finance Committee chaired by Senator Yarbrough.
The bill had a shaky start when a Tucson City Councilman, Steve Kozachik, a vocal and primary supporter of the bill, verbally attacked the Legislature. It continued to lose support as details of the bill emerged.
Despite the fact that the “program being proposed now is designed to address the shortcomings in the original film tax credit law,” according to the Yellow Sheet, two speakers testified against the bill, calling it as doomed to fail as its predecessors in previous years.” According to the Yellow Sheet, “the credit that was enacted in 2005 and ended in 2010 ultimately cost the state roughly $10 million, said Scott Mussi, director of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. That includes $2 million in losses in 2010, when the state issued $2.6 million in credits but only took in $600,000 in revenue.”
Mussi told the senators that a similar Michigan program that was implemented brought little revenue to the state. He said, “It’s another dollar not spent on other priorities” such as education.
Proponents say original film tax credit was a transferable credit and the new credit will be a refundable credit. They claim that it makes all the difference in the world.
Senators aren’t buying it. According to the Yellow Sheet, Yarbrough said he has no plans to allow a hearing on the bill in fin. “I pretty much decided it won’t be heard next week, which is my last meeting to hear bills in this house. I don’t think you should get any money from the government if you don’t have any tax liability to begin with, and I also have some unease about the nature of the jobs that would be created. They appear to be, to me, primarily temporary jobs, some are permanent, but it just didn’t in my mind rise to level that it would be worthy of being enacted.”
Most Arizonans agree; they reject a subsidy of the film industry at a time when steady employment is hard to come by and working two or three days as an extra won’t pay the rent.
