SAVE THE MICHIGAN FILM INDUSTRY! STOP BILL 4122

With the State of Georgia as a model, film incentives that are given support flourish. Local business grows, as Hollywood likes to spend their budget. And in a language that the Republicans behind our potential demise should understand, the cash flow TRICKLES DOWN! When production rolls in to build sets and shoot, local lumber and building material suppliers, location owners, gas stations, restaurants, local grocers and retailers, auto rental companies, and hotels all benefit.

No secret that the economic climate in Michigan has been rough for the last few years. Everybody wants to talk about permanent jobs. I have been on the Hollywood employment call list since 2010. The tax incentives, albeit generous, were STABLE. The film industry was BOOMING! And then, the leadership in Lansing changed.

What I know as fact is this... when the Governor first started tinkering with the incentives in 2011, employment opportunities in the film industry declined dramatically. Thankfully, they stabilized over the last couple years and welcomed major productions Transformers 4 and Batman V Superman. My 2013 & 2014 AGI's are proof that the film incentives create not only well paying, PERMANENT JOBS, but CAREERS. Careers that not only provide MEDICAL BENEFITS to our families, but free us from the clutches of Obamacare! Careers that provide PENSIONS to those who choose this PERMANENT JOB; a job they can retire from some day.

In Public Act 396 of 2014 (Dec 24th), the Michigan film incentives were extended for 7 years; and finally with some quotas that would INCREASE JOB OPPORTUNITIES and PROVIDE TRAINING. And Hollywood was expected to respond favorably with uncounted MILLIONS spent in State. And it finally seemed the industry would reach its potential.

And yet, here we are... Feb 25th, 2015. 10:30 AM. Enter HOUSE BILL 4122, set to kill the film incentive and send a promising new Michigan industry to an early grave. And the giant sucking sound from the south grows louder, as those Michiganders who have "reinvented themselves" to adapt to a changing economic climate, follow their new careers to Georgia.