Taxpayer provided incentives for one industry or another have always been morally wrong and with questionable results.
Maybe this time we can end ONE particular part of an ongoing ‘eating out of our substance’ for the purposes of one industry’s benefit. HB4122 will do this, and we support its passage. The Ivory Tower reports on the effort to push through this bill with some commentary on both sides of the debate. Supporting removal of the subsidies is one former lawmaker:
“The film subsidies send much of the $50 million allocated to them, out of state — to Hollywood millionaires and billionaires,” said former state Rep. Tom McMillin, a leading opponent of the incentives. “A lot more jobs will be created by keeping that money in Michigan and employing Michigan workers to fix roads or keep the money in the pockets of business owners across the state, so they can hire more employees.”
Indeed, one of the missed points when giving taxpayer money away is what the benefit might have been if it had been left in the hands of those who produced it.
This is a start. Rumors of a bill to end the MEDC have been floating around, and would be well received by overtaxed Michiganians, but so far no such effort from ANY lawmaker has borne any fruit.
(12)Nuh Uh.
(0)
I listened to Senate Maj Leader Arlan Meekoff spit and sputter about this bill today (during a WJR Beckmann interview) being a bad idea because it sends the wrong message to investors who might consider trying to build an industry in Michigan.
He pretty much slammed the door on the bill ever getting out of committee in the Senate, which is no surprise to me or anyone else.
All that being said, budget talks at this time of year are by far the best time to be fighting handouts and bailouts, and now that the House passed this bill, it's apparent that there's a lot of support for killing the subsidies- and will still be there during the budget process.
Would I like to see the $50M subsidy go away? Yes. However, if all that it's going to result in is this *savings* becomes a $48M transfer to Precious Snowflakes™ who sit in Bill Gates, Betsy DeVos, and Jeb Bush's Common Core indoctrination factories ($4.9M in dues for 2015), well, then piss on it - I'd rather see a movie.
And no, this bitch posing with the nerd does not have your children's best interests in mind.
Tom McMillen for Gov--yeah that's something I could get behind!
The Republican Majority in Lansing would set out to destroy him.
But, I like the way you think.