NFIB: program takes from businesses more than it gives.
Is it finally a “wrap” for Michigan’s controversial film tax credits?
If the state’s small business owners had their way, the answer would be a resounding “cut,” says NFIB/Michigan State Director Charlie Owens.
“These are well-intended programs, but in the end you’re taking from a lot of other business to support these incentives and our members don’t support that,” Owens told the Detroit Free Press.
Now, the State Senate is weighing a measure that would have the program’s $50 million in the recently approved 2015-2016 budget, reducing it to a $25 million budget line item for the incentives, along with eliminating the entire Michigan Film Office. In its place, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation would absorb the money.
“Other states do this better than us,” State Sen. Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said. “I think we go away from it for a while. We’ve got other priorities and we’ve heard that roads are the first priority.”
