OCPA: $50 million for Hollywood is fiscal and social folly

OCPA: $50 million for Hollywood is fiscal and social folly OKLAHOMA CITY (April 20, 2021)— Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), today called on lawmakers to reject legislation that would provide up to $50 million annually in state subsidies to film productions at the same time many Hollywood officials are attacking other states for passing pro-life and election-security laws. “This session, many lawmakers have balked at expanding Oklahoma’s successful tax-credit scholarship program for low- and middle-income children, but now appear ready to dump millions more down the burn barrel that is our state’s film-subsidy program,” Small said. “To make matters worse, state lawmakers appear poised to not only take tens of millions away from hard-working Oklahoma families, but they will also give those millions to Hollywood elites who are actively lobbying against pro-life and election-security measures and other laws supported by most Oklahomans. This isn’t just bad policy, it’s a slap in the face to Oklahomans.” An amendment filed to Senate Bill 608 creates the “Filmed In Oklahoma Act of 2021.” The legislation would provide up to $50 million in annual rebate payments to film productions shot, at least in part, in Oklahoma, a dramatic increase compared to the $8 million in annual subsidies provided by the existing program. The legislation has been filed as filmmakers are trying to influence Georgia policymakers by threatening to yank productions out of that state. In 2019, after the enactment of a Georgia law banning abortion after a heartbeat can be detected from an unborn child, numerous officials in the entertainment industry threatened to pull projects out of Georgia in retaliation, including officials with Netflix and Disney. Read more » by Jamison Faught - April 22, 2021 at 01:23PM

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