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When taxpayers finance like “Blue Bloods” and “SNL”, is this chargeable?

New Yorkers – and residents of many other states – have paid more for entertainment in recent years than their Netflix or Hulu subscriptions.

Each New York household has also contributed about $ 16 in taxes, on average, to produce the dramatic series “Billions” since 2017. During this period, each household also paid about $ 14.50 in production incentives for “Saturday Night Live” and $ 4.60 for “The Irishman”, between many other programs and films.

Adding everything and New York has spent more than $ 5.5 billion in incentives since 2017, the first year for which data is easily available. Now, as a new state budget agreement is approaching, Governor Kathy Hochul said that she wanted to add $ 100 million in credit for independent productions that would bring subsidies to total cinema to 800 million dollars per year, almost double the amount of 2022.

Other states also pay tens or hundreds of millions each year into a war of tenders for Hollywood Productions, under theory that these tax credits stimulate the economy. A question for voters and legislators is whether a state recovers more than its investment in these films and emissions – or only returns money on the dollar.

New York has one of the largest tax credit programs and makes most of its public data, so we have totaled its expenses to see what productions have benefited the most.

TV shows that filter several seasons in New York have received the most money over time, although the films shot in the state also receive credits:

The basic premise of the incentive program is that for each dollar expenses qualified by production, whether for a camera operator or costumes, New York will reimburse 30 cents. (He will not reimburse certain types of expenses, such as large wages for cinema stars.)

Supporters say jobs are created when productions choose to film in New York. The state also earns 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 increase and pay more taxes). The calculation of the amount of returned money is based on a series of hypotheses.

A recent study commissioned by Empire State Development, the agency which administers the tax credit, revealed that for each dollar given, approximately $ 1.70 was returned via local or state taxes, which means that the program was profitable for the state.

But many economists say that these programs are losers. A separate study commissioned by the Department of Taxation and Finance of the New York State estimated a return of only 31 cents on the dollar.

Two senators from New York State in the Democratic Majority, Michael Gianaris and James Skoufis, agree that the States are in growing competition to attract productions. They do not agree if this game is a New York should try to win.

“There is a breed that takes place among the States and that is why we must adjust it,” said Gianaris, the head of the assistant majority, citing the desire to follow the increase in New Jersey. “It is constantly a reassessment based on what other jurisdictions do and if we have to adjust our program to maintain our success.”

Mr. Skoufis wants to go out: “It is a race down. The loser is the taxpayer.”

Anyway, the race between neighbors heats up. In recent years, New Jersey has increased its program to $ 800 million a year, compared to $ 100 million in 2021. Some productions have benefited from the two states: “compensation” received tax credits for its first season in New Jersey ($ 1.1 million) and New York ($ 39.6 million).

In 2010, New Jersey provided a natural experience of what is happening when a state leaves the race, when Governor Chris Christie suspended the state program. He cited budgetary concerns and the frustration that “Jersey Shore” – approved a tax credit – represented the state negatively. The New Jersey’s film industry has decreased quickly, but not entirely.

A recent investigation into the New York Times incitement programs said the states had paid more than $ 25 billion over 20 years. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom of California cited the size of New York subsidies when he proposed to increase tax credits by his state to $ 750 million against $ 330 million.

The New York Development Agency also deals with all candidates. The administrators of its program do not judge whether a credit is necessary to provide production to New York. “Saturday Night Live” and a new CBS procedure would both be eligible for the same tax credits, even if the latter has much more flexibility to choose its location.

Mr. Gianaris, whose district is in Queens, says that estimates of the value of the New York program do not take into account tourism. New York has a “massive tourism economy built around the fact that New York is a character” in television and films, he said. “There is an insensible impact of this, which is why I think credit is more than the balance sheet.”

To qualify for the program, films or programs are not required to base their fictitious world in New York. “Pretty Little Liars”, for example, received a credit of $ 30 million in 2024 even if the story takes place in Pennsylvania.

But many shows in the state make New York a central part of their programs. Of the 10 productions that have received the most tax credits since 2017, eight are mainly set in New York.

The same goes for each state. In New Jersey, productions receiving tens of millions of dollars in tax loss have often established their stories in New York.

Even if states clash for productions, their incentive programs often oppose different parts of a state against each other.

Mr. Skoufis, which represents part of the Hudson valley, north of New York, said that there are “rooted interests that benefit from the program – unions and other stakeholders”. He added: “My colleagues love sound courses in their district.”

Although the program offers an additional reimbursement of 10% to productions in the northern New York State, a majority of productions are in New York. In 2024, only 15% of tax credits went to productions filmed outside the city.

The city of New York obtains a large part of the taxes in return: a study, also commissioned by Empire State Development, noted that the city receives almost half of the additional taxes generated by the incentives of the film, although it is the state that pays the incentives.

Legislators who represent areas where the film industry has prospered have a reason to cause money to flow, even if everything does not come back to state chests.

Justin Marlowe, director of the municipal funding center at the University of Chicago, said legislators often make decisions about tax incentives without detailed information. As a result, they often do so in order to prevent a bad political result.

“As a person of public financing, I look at this and I say that it is really not good for the taxpayers that we play this rye zero game,” said Professor Marlowe. “And you cannot blame the legislators of the state for having played it because they must, right? If they do not do so, they undergo political consequences.”

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