2 thumbs down for film credit

Hartford (WTNH) - Generous tax incentives have brought big time film makers and some new companies to the state. But now a report says the incentives are costing more than they make.

A group that advocates for children says it makes no sense to cut services to them in these tough economic times and subsidize the entertainment industry.

Seeing Harrison Ford make the latest Indiana Jones movie and bumping into Steven Spielberg have been two of the bonuses of the state's love affair with the film industry.

But generous tax breaks that have brought several major film productions into the state along with several new companies are coming under fire as a bad deal for state taxpayers.

Entitled, "Fiddling While Rome Burns; Connecticut's Multi Million dollar, Money Losing Subsidy to the Entertainment Industry," the New Haven based Connecticut Voices for Children advocacy group took the state's own numbers and concludes the incentives are a losing proposition.

Of the $113 million in tax credits awarded, so far only eleven percent of the expenditures were actually made in Connecticut.

"It appears from the data, so far, that the state is subsidizing businesses out of state," Shelly Geballe, president and co-founder of Voices for Children, said.

Karen Senich, heads the state agency involved in the program.

"She neglects to talk about jobs, this legislation is all about job creation," Senich said. "This program has been in effect for about thirty months. We've had over 4,000 jobs created and jobs really are the key to stimulating our economy."

"The report looks at that and makes a set of assumptions that if people are paying five percent on all of the income made, eleven percent on all of the hotel expenditures and the like, what would be the total revenue gain to the state?," Geballe said. "And it's still far less than a dollar tax credit."

The tax credit was championed by former Speaker of the House Jim Amann of Milford. He's hanging his hat on this idea as he runs for governor.

Today, he called the report incomplete and inaccurate.

"At a time where an industry is growing jobs; Voices For Children has fried the goose that laid the golden egg of opportunity for our state," Amann said.

Amann says it's too early to close the books on this and that this report will cause film companies to think twice about coming here.

Governor Rell has proposed putting a cap at about $30 million on the film industry tax credits.

Voices for Children says that in order to save money in the state budget there should be a cap or the credits should be eliminated.