New Yorkers, and residents of many other states, have paid more for entertainment in recent years than only their Netflix or Hulu subscriptions.
EACH New York Household Has Also Contribute About $ 16 In Taxes, On Average, Toward Producing The Drama Series “Billions” Since 2017. About that journal, Each Household Has Also Paid Roughly $ 14.50 In Production Incentives For The “Saturday Night” and $ Tday Nightte and $ T. Nightties and $ TDay Nightties and $ Tday Nightties and $ Tday Nightties and $ Tday Nighttday and $ Tday Nighttay and $ Tday Night “and $ Tday Night” and $ 46. Many other programs and movies.
Add everything, and New York has spent more than $ 5.5 billion in incentives since 2017, the first year for which the data is easily available. Now, as a new state budget agreement approaches, Governor Kathy Hochul has said she wants to add $ 100 million in credits for independent productions that would generate subsidies of total films to $ 800 million a year, almost twice as long as the amount of 2022.
Other states also pay tens or hundreds of millions each year in a war of offers for Hollywood productions, according to the theory that tax credits stimulate the economy. A question for voters and legislators is whether a state recovers more than their investment in these films and programs, or only recovers cents in dollar.
New York has one of the greatest fiscal credit programs and makes most of its data public, so we totalize its expenses to see which productions benefited the most.
Television programs that multiple films in New York have received the greatest amount of money about time, thought films filmed in the state also receive credits:
The basic premise of the incentive program is that for each dollar of expenditure qualified by a production, either for a camera operator or costumes, New York will reimburse 30 cents. (He won reimbursements for some types of expenses, such as great salaries for film stars).
Supporters say that works are created when productions choose to film in New York. The State also obtains at least part of the money, both directly (crew members pay taxes) and indirectly (more money spent on craft services means that local catering companies grow and pay more taxes). Calculating how much money is returned is based on a series of assumptions.
A recent study in charge of Empire State Development, the agency that manages the tax credit, found that for each dollar delivered, around $ 1.70 were returned through local or state taxes, which means that the program was profitable for the State.
But many economists say that thesis programs are money losers. A separate study commissioned by the New York Tax and Finance Department estimated a declaration of only 31 cents per dollar.
The states are in a race that can be difficult to leave
Two senators of the New York State in the democratic majority, Michael Gianaris and James Skoufis, agree that the states They are in increasing competition to attract productions. They don’t agree if that game is a New York should try to win.
“There is a career that is to play between the states and that is why we have to adjust it,” said Mr. Gianaris, the leader of the attached majority, citing a desire to maintain the waste of New Jersey. “It is constantly a reevaluation based on what other jurisdictions are doing and if we need to change our program to accumulate our success.”
Mr. Skoufis wants to leave: “It’s a race to the bottom. The loser is the taxpayer.”
Anyway, the race between neighbors is heating. In recent years, New Jersey has expanded its program at $ 800 million a year, compared to $ 100 million in 2021. Some productions have benefited from both states: “Dignation” He received fiscal credits for his first season of New Jersey ($ 1.1 million) and New York ($ 39.6 million).
In 2010, New Jersey tried a natural experiment of what happens when a state leaves the race, when Governor Chris Christie suspended the State program. The cited budgetary groups and the frustration that “Jersey Shore”, approved for a fiscal credit, negatively described the State. The New Jersey film industry was quickly reduced, he thought not at all.
A recently survey of New York Times incentive programs estimated that states had paid more than $ 25 billion of approximately 20 years. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom or California cited the size of New York subsidies when he proposed to increase the tax credits of his state to $ 750 million from $ 330 million.
The New York Development Agency treats all applicants equally. Its programs administrators do not say that a loan is needed to bring a production to New York. “Saturday Night Live” and a new CBS procedure would be eligible for the same tax credits, even if the latter has much more flexibility to choose its location.
Productions can boost tourism … for some states
Mr. Gianaris, whose district is Queens, says that estimates of the value of New York programs do not take into account tourism. New York has a “massive tourism economy built around the fact that New York is a character” on television and movies, he said. “There is an imperable impact of that, so I think the credit is more than just the balance.”
To qualify for the program, films or programs are not obliged to have their fictitious worlds based on New York. “Pretty Little Liars”, for example, He received a loan of $ 30 million in 2024 even thought that history was established in Pennsylvania.
But many show that the film in the state makes New York a central part of its programs. Of the 10 productions that have received the largest amount of tax credits since 2017, eight are established mainly in New York.
The same is not true for each state. In New Jersey, the productions that dozens of millions of dollars receive in tax exemptions often establish their stories in New York.
Within a state, the benefits are unequal
Even when states compete for productions, their incentive programs often face different parts of a state from each other.
Skoufis, which reacts part of the Hudson Valley, north of New York City, said that “there are some interests between the program that benefit from the program: unions and other interested parties.” He added: “My colleagues love the sound stages in their district.”
Although the program sacrifices an additional 10 percent reimbursement to productions in the state of New York, most productions are found in New York City. In 2024, only 15 percent or fiscal credits went to productions filmed outside the city.
New York City receives many of the tax dollars in return: a study, also commissioned by Empire State Development, discovered that the city receives almost half of the dollars of additional taxes generated by the cinematographic incentives, thought that it is the state that pays the payments of the payments of the payments of the payments of the payments of the payments of the payments of the payments of the payments.
Legislators representing areas where the film industry has through a reason to maintain money flowing, even if not everything flows back to state coffers.
Justin Marlowe, director of the Municipal Finance Center of the University of Chicago, said that legislators often make decisions about tax incentives without detailed information. As a result, they more or less with an eye towing a bad political result.
“As a public finance person, I look at this and say that this is not really good for taxpayers who play this dumb zero -sum game,” said Professor Marlowe. “And you can’t blame state legislators for playing it because they have to do it, right? If they don’t, they suffer political consequences.”
