IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Rep. D'Amico keeps up the fight for the Fourth Bristol District. Check is coming in the mail. JUST STAY HOME FOLKS!!!

FROM THE SUN CHRONICLE

State Rep. Steve D'Amico made another stab at limiting or ending state subsidies for the film industry Thursday, but was accused by the industry of trying to send business out of state.

D'Amico, D-Seekonk, held a briefing for the media and fellow legislators at the Statehouse in support of Gov. Deval Patrick's proposal to limit tax credits for films made in Massachusetts to $50 million a year.

A longtime opponent of the credits, D'Amico said Patrick's plan would save an estimated $75 million a year, money that otherwise would have to be cut out of aid to cities and towns or other important programs.

D'Amico said he would go further than the governor and end the program, but would settle for the $50 million cap for now.

He said tax credits are not like tax deductions. The credits are cash payments to the film industry that are wasteful ways of creating jobs. The state Department of Revenue found that the state spends $89,000 in tax credits for every $67,000 job that is created.

"It would be cheaper to pay people to stay home," he said.

He also said the state study found that the $118 million the state spent in film tax credits in 2008 generated only $17.5 million in revenue from other taxes.

But, Mary Fifield, who represents a Massachusetts film group called The Production Coalition, said D'Amico misunderstands the purpose of a tax credit.

She said credits are intended to spur economic activity, not tax revenue.

Over the past four years, the tax credits have encouraged $1 billion in economic activity in Massachusetts.

She said only one major film was made in Massachusetts in 2006, while 38 were filmed here over the past four years.

"The tax credit has worked exactly the way tax credits are suppose to work," she said.

Fifield also took issue with D'Amico using consultant Ned Rightor to support his case.

She said Rightor has worked for the New York film industry and has an interest in movies being made there, rather than in Massachusetts. D'Amico disputed her claim. He said Rightor has done some consulting for New York, but his study conducted with a Cornell University professor was not funded by the film industry.

In fact, he said, the New York film industry did not like the report by Rightor because it criticized the tax credits New York gives out.

D'Amico has been campaigning against film tax credits for several years, and said Thursday he believes he is making progress convincing his colleagues they are a bad idea.