By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
Recently on Post Scripts, Jack gave a good review of a great action movie called Battle Los Angeles. It's a movie about some marines from Camp Pendleton defending a small area of Los Angeles from evil space aliens. Lots of action, shooting, explosions take place along with some good chest thumping bravado scenes. And of course the Americans save the day. It was a good movie and it made a lot of money at the box office.
It also made a lot of money for the location it was filmed. But it wasn't filmed in Los Angeles.
You can read about it here in the Los Angeles Times.
That's right, Battle Los Angeles was actually filmed in Louisiana! Baton Rouge to be exact. The people of Louisiana got a nice economic bump, as the movie production hired a crew of 200 people, 3,000 extras, and spent about $46.5 million on the local economy.
Does this seem strange to anyone? Why would a movie about Los Angeles not be filmed there? Isn't LA the home of Hollywood, where movies are made? Isn't Hollywood filled with liberals who hate capitalism and should be proud to pay more to film in their home state? I guess not.
It turns out that Louisiana offers a huge tax break for movie productions. The kind of tax break we don't like to give the "rich" in this state because it's wrong. But are tax breaks wrong, or just competitive for business?
Louisiana offers a 35 percent tax break for production costs of major films. California only goes up to 25 percent and they cut that off if the production goes over $75 million (which means most movies you see on the silver screen these days).
What it boils down to is that tax breaks work, especially for states that are competing for business. California is losing that competition, along with a lot of jobs, because we are no longer competitive. As businesses and jobs leave our state, you can watch the revenue to pay for teachers and police plummet. At least we can feel superior that we're not cutting any breaks to the evil capitalists, I guess. Unemployment anyone?
Steve this is a fabulous illustration of the folly of democrat economic policy. California is sinking rapidly under the weight of such insanity.
Those of us who were once producers of wealth in this state don't experience that sense of "superiority" shared by the capitalist bashers...just a lot of sadness that our once vibrant economy, and the countless lost jobs, have been stomped to death in the name of "helping" or leveling playing fields...or spreading the wealth around.
Wealth is spread when people can find work. Wealth is accumulated when people save and invest. Wealth continues to grow when people are allowed to keep what they earn. Stability in the economy is accomplished when government supports the producers rather than punishing them. Progress is made when innovators are encouraged.
And government realizes more revenue when all of the above happens.
But it all falls apart when government wastes the revenues we send them and then demands more, when government rewards some citizens and punishes others, when government tries to manage the lives of the citizens or acts like a parent rather than a servant of the people.
Thanks Tina,
The frustrating part is that there are a whole lot of people who depend on government revenue for their living, and they are voting against their own best interests when they vote for the leftists who are destroying this state. The irony that movies about California can no longer be filmed here is totally lost on our opponents, I fear.
Steve I guess all we can do is continue to talk about it and post articles like this one. Maybe one day when their own pockets are empty and we're all stuck traveling dusty roads like Tom Jode in search of work they'll begin sit up and take notice. The day will come unless they begin to grasp the notion that private business/investment creates the wealth that fuels the whole shebang.
Great comments Steve. I hope that more people wake up and realize what is happening before our state
is gone.
Stability in the economy is accomplished when government supports the producers rather than punishing them. Progress is made when innovators are encouraged.
Totally agree with LA Jones.