Great reporting by Commonwealth Magazine on the geographic inequities found in the film tax credit. Nearly three-quarters of the state’s film shoots over the last decade took place in Greater Boston, with 13 percent in Boston alone, yet taxpayers statewide in 2017 paid $90 million in tax breaks to film producers, the majority of the money of which was sent outside of Massachusetts. I continue to be skeptical that the tax credit is a net-positive for Massachusetts, including new tax revenue, and jobs.
From the story by Bruce Mohl: “It isn’t working if the costs are borne by people in every corner of the state but the benefits accrue primarily to Greater Boston,” the [New Bedford] mayor says. “It’s hard to justify this program if the benefits are concentrated so disproportionately in Boston, which frankly doesn’t need much in the way of subsidy to drive economic development for any purpose.”
Full story here.
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