House Will Push Tax Incentive to Bring Movie Business Back to Massachusetts
By Michael P. Norton for the State House News Service
       With most other states already offering enticements, the Massachusetts House is poised to advance a package of tax credits and incentives that lawmakers, film producers and actors say will help local businesses by putting the Bay State back on the movie-making map.
       The proposal, if approved, would cut the cost of producing movies in
Massachusetts, enabling the state to compete more aggressively in a
potentially lucrative market. For example, G. Mac Brown, executive
producer of “The Departed,” which stars Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and is presently shooting in Boston, said the film makers are spending $375,000 a day, but will soon leave to shoot a series of scenes in New York.
       “It is only about the bottom line,” Brown said at a press briefing, noting New York’s rebate program means “The Departed” will spend up to $30 million there, or about twice as much as the film will spend in Massachusetts. “If you pass a program, I think more and more work will come.”
       Brown and others in the industry say Canada has upped the ante in the bidding among states to host movie shoots.
       House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, who hosted the briefing, said the proposal is the first of several that House leaders will unveil in the coming weeks to generate economic development and job creation in Massachusetts. A second proposal, establishing a second annual sales tax holiday on August 13, also appears to be on the fast track.
       DiMasi said he hopes to have the bill on Gov. Mitt Romney's desk before the summer recess and he believes there's reason to believe the Senate and Romney will go along with the plan. House Democrats will meet in a private caucus on Tuesday to discuss the proposal’s details, and a floor vote is possible on Tuesday afternoon.
       The bill calls for the state to authorize a 15 percent payroll tax credit and a 25 percent production tax credit, with total tax credits for any single production limited to $7 million. It allows a sales and use tax exemption for companies that intend to spend at least $250,000 on productions during a 12-month period. And the state would continue to offer the use of state-owned buildings or locations without charging a fee. A state-produced economic impact report would be required by 2009, as well as annual reports on productions that receive credits.
       Acclaimed actor Christopher Cooper, a Kingston resident whose work has been featured in “Seabiscuit,” “Adaptation” and “Lone Star,” said that if Massachusetts can make its film production costs competitive with other
states, it stands a far better chance of attracting more movies. Lower
costs, he said, can mean more days to shoot.
        “You have no concept of how important that is and how it can improve a film,” Cooper, a Missouri native, said at the briefing where his
screenwriter wife, Marianne, also spoke in favor of the bill and its potential to spin off new revenues for hotels, restaurants, technicians, makeup artists, carpenters and others with film industry ties.
       The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Thomas O’Brien (D-Kingston), said the bill
won’t immediately lead to quantifiable reductions in state tax revenues
because it’s designed to attract economic activity that is now occurring
out of state.
        “We’re reclaiming some of what we’ve lost,” said O’Brien. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s no cost.”O’Brien predicted that should the legislation be signed into law, Massachusetts would instantly become one of the top three most attractive states for movie and film producers.
       Producers of films and movies valued at $75 million, $158 million, and $215 million will choose Massachusetts during the first three years following the bill’s passage, O’Brien predicted, calling his forecasts “conservative.”
       House lawmakers have asked the state Department of Revenue for a formal revenue analysis of their proposal. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) estimated tax collections tied to new productions in Massachusetts would outstrip the value of tax credits and incentives offered as sweeteners.
        “I’m looking forward to bringing more money into the Commonwealth’s coffers,” DeLeo said. Bill supporters say that only two major movies have been filmed in Massachusetts since 1998.
Movie producer and director Sam Weisman, a Massachusetts resident, directed the $54 million film "What's the Worst that Can Happen?" here in 2000 and said he encountered no problems over 55 days of work. The movie starred Danny DeVito and Martin Lawrence and local residents accounted for about 75 percent of the film crew.
       To underscore the economic impact a major movie can make, Weisman noted that Lawrence alone dropped nearly $500,000 in $3,400-per-night charges for the presidential suite at the Four Seasons Hotel. “And that’s before room service,” Weisman quipped. Other top actors, he said, spend per diems of roughly $3,000.
       Weisman said making Massachusetts more movie-friendly may pay dividends for years since New England is home to many writers, and numerous colleges and universities with ties to the industry. “They write stories that are set in New England and their dream is to come here and shoot them,” he said.
       Charles Merzbacher of the Boston University Department of Film & Television said the number of students graduating and leaving Massachusetts has tripled over the past eight years, a trend he attributes to the market here.And film technicians are leaving as well.
       Chris O’Donnell, business manager at the Woburn-based Local 481 Studio Mechanics, said technicians are straying to states like Louisiana, where a new investment tax credit has led to a 1,500 percent increase in annual productions, which are up from $20 million to $300 million.
        “To us, this is fundamentally a jobs bill,” O’Donnell said. “It’s a clean
industry. They come. They spend money. They clean up after
themselves. And then they leave.”
        DiMasi said he hopes the Senate and Gov. Romney will support the
plan. “I’d like to see the bill on the governor’s desk before we break for
a recess at the end of the month,” DiMasi said.
        “I think the only thing I can say right now is we’ll take a look at it when it comes over,” said Ann Dufresne, a spokeswoman for Senate President Robert Travaglini.
        Joseph Donovan, a spokesman for Economic Development Secretary Ranch Kimball, said the administration couldn’t comment specifically on the bill, which was released by the House Ways and Means Committee this
morning.. “The governor generally supports tax cuts but will review the
Speaker’s legislation when it reaches his desk,” Donovan said.