New Mexico film subsidy debate heats up again
Posted at: 01/19/2012 5:59 PM
| Updated at: 01/19/2012 7:11 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
At the New Mexico state capitol another battle is looming over the state's rebates for the film industry.
Last year, the legislature and the Governor Susana Martinez agreed to cap the rebates at $50 million a year, but now there's an organized effort to blow the cap off and go back to the old way of doing business.
The old way was a pretty sweet deal - spend a dollar making a movie here, get 25 cents back - with some restrictions and reservations, of course.
However, Gov. Martinez cried foul.
She said other industries don't get breaks like that, so why should the movies?
That led to the cap, and the fight to take it off.
"When the Governor gave her speech last year and the cap was imposed, the phones stopped ringing at ABQ Studios and other places," said Rep. Moe Maestas, an Albuquerque Democrat who is one of more than two dozen sponsors of the bill that would repeal the cap. "If the incentive is good, there should be no cap."
Others find the film subsidy as a waste of taxpayer money.
"I understand it's a wonderful industry that many people have committed their lives to," said Rep. Dennis Kintigh, a Roswell Republican who is a longtime opponent of the film subsidy. "This is a bad use of taxpayers' dollars."
Democrats in the legislature tend to support getting rid of the cap, saying the state shouldn't cap job creation.
"It brings in spending and jobs," said Maestas. "We get more bang for the buck out of this tax incentive than most others and it really puts us on the map, nationally and internationally."
Some Republicans, like Kintigh, are offering a counter-proposal.
"A phase-out of the program that would take it down 1% a year over a 25 year period," Kintigh said. "It also involves some caps on how much can be redeemed in any one year."
There is not much - if any - enthusiasm for that plan on the Democratic side of the aisle.
At one point during last year's debate over whether or not to scrap the rebate/subsidy entirely, the producers of the long-awaited Lone Ranger movie threatened to move production to Louisiana.
After the compromise was hammered out to impose the cap, the producers decided to stay in New Mexico.
The Lone Ranger is set to start shooting next month.
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