Mass. film tax credit survives in budget
It’s still “lights, camera, credit” in Massachusetts. Despite the urging of Gov. Charlie Baker to kill the film tax credit, the legislature kept it active as it wrapped up budget negotiations Wednesday for fiscal 2006.
The Boston Globe reported Thursday that Baker, like his predecessor Deval Patrick, criticized the credit as a multimillion-dollar giveaway that was not justified by the amount of economic activity it generated in the state.
“My view has been that the subsidy is not worth the value of the return,” Baker said Wednesday, according to the Globe report. “There are clearly people in the Legislature who disagree with me, but, as I said before, that’s politics. That’s government.”
The $38.1 billion budget is now on the governor's desk.
Film-industry workers and related professionals organized a lobbying campaign to keep the tax credit active. House Speaker Robert DeLeo agreed with them.
“We feel that it’s good business,” DeLeo said Wednesday, according to the Globe. “I know I’ve talked to small businesses throughout the commonwealth who say when films are made in that particular district, how valuable they can be.”
Worcester has been the site of several Hollywood film crew shoots since the film credit took effect in 2006. The incentive provides for a payroll tax credit of 25 percent.
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