Jackson Jambalaya

The beautiful people that the movie industry brings into Jackson is worth it

Sort of a dumb decision to make. Instead of loosing the money we could use it in some other areas.

I think we get more than a little dollar value out of showing how beautiful our State is.
I don't see that PEER put a dollar value on that.
I also suspect the manufacturer's association had more than a little influence on the report.
Do you think those in the films don't have good things to say to others they meet?
And, I know when people come from out of state, they want to see the things they've seen in movies and on television. I know many friends out of State who have gone on the Blues Trail because of Antony Bourdain's piece, and to Natchez because of movies filmed on locations there. When I go to national conventions, I'm asked about the places others have seen in films.
We have a legislature that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Most movies do not project the State in a positive matter.

does their analysis include the fact that these companies SPEND a ton of money in the state? when "A Time to Kill" was filmed in Canton way back in the 90's, they had a house built to burn down [the attorney's house] and had a massive buffet every day they shot with expensive food to feed hundreds! Caterers cried for months when the production moved by to California.

My company is a vendor for many movie productions here in Mississippi. I'm very thankful for the business but giving the film companies so much in tax incentives they should not want such cut rates from Mississippi and local vendors and they should pay us on time BUT they pay slow and want the lowest prices but yet want us to jump when they say jump. This is because the precedent was already set by MDA and our state that everyone will cater to them and slow pay is fine and we are cheap anyway so they an take advantage of us . The solution is to not give as much tax incentive, some tax incentive but we don't have to give our state away! MDA should help improve our image as a great state to do movies not as the cheapest and weakest that we give our resources away! It filters down to the businesses that are local and are support businesses to the film business.

Not a spending priority. Cut the program.

Could be worse @3:31 PM. Could have rented a bus to Kennuf sTokes.

When they gonna look into the "cultural retail" tax rebate?

Movies that are made in Mississippi are destructive to our image as they only focus on the atrocities of the state's horrible racist past.

Louisiana went through this last year and cut their movie "tax giveaway to rich democrats that loathe the republicans and the south" too

The only return we get for our money is our image plastered all over the screen. It isn't a image most people want shown even if it is true.

Wait a minute. Are we talking about handing out money or simply discounting/abating the tax they will have to pay if they shoot their movie in Mississippi? It sounds like we're offering up something that we'll never have if they go elsewhere. What's the problem? The only time a tax incentive/rebate is real money lost to the state is when there's another business that would have paid the tax that is turned away in favor of the one getting the rebates.

The state pays rediculous incentives for new and expanded manufacturing based on number of new jobs. Film industry is more difficult to quantify. Mississippi spends lots of money to attract manufacturing that may or may not pan out. It should be easy to capture the amount spent in the state to produce the film, state income tax paid by the actors, producers, other staff, and the return on publicity to the state which can continue for years.

This is the problem with using static economics to determine a dynamic economic impact. The State did not "pay" the film company to film in Mississippi, it forgave a certain amount of taxes it could have received because the film company conducted its business in Mississippi instead of Louisiana. To determine the amount of economic impact in a dynamic environment you must SUBTRACT the amount that Mississippi companies and employees would not have received due to not enticing the film in Mississippi. The actual cost to the state is only the cost of the employees of the MDA assigned to recruit filming in Mississippi; which I suspect would still be there.

Also, it's not the filming that gives the State a bad image, that would be the story. They very easily could make the film in Alabama, Louisiana, or even California.

Garbage in, garbage out and this report needs to go in the garbage.

This report is a waste of paper/

You either have the revenue generated from money spent while the film company is in Mississippi plus the publicity value or you have nothing .

There's no " lost revenue" or cost to the State.

There is possibly a cost to blocking roads or police protection for the actors to local communities that could be taken care of by requiring the film company to pay negotiate those costs with the local community.

Is there is common sense to be found in our legislature government at all?

I heard Phil on the Gallo show the other day and Gallo asked him about movies coming to the State and Phil said he see's movie making in Mississippi as a break even venture for the state. So why do we do it? So Hollywood types can travel to Mississippi and see we are actually good people? No we do it because some State bigwigs get to play deal maker with some of the "b" movie/tv producers who travel to the state.

3:08; You're nuts! Yes, when tax abatements are granted to a new or expanding industry, that comes at a price. And the price we pay for that is called jobs. Jobs that last for decades. Jobs that would otherwise not exist and that will benefit the local and state economy. Do you not understand how that works? Really?

I agree that, on average (if there's such a thing in this regard), films about our state have been negative and have portrayed us as backwards, hoodlums, ignorant, bumbling cardboard cutouts of Junior Samples. Do we really want to pay people to do that? Or give them incentives to do that?

Meet with the directors and writers up front. If their concept will benefit us in a positive way, roll out the red carpet. If not, make it tough on them. It's not illegal yet to discriminate against film-makers.

Mississippi's film incentive program is a little different than those in many other states. Filmmakers who come to Mississippi do not get tax credits like they do in Louisiana or Georgia. Rather, when the film is over, they submit receipts to the Department of Revenue for all of the money that was paid specifically to Mississippi businesses and individuals.This includes things like hotel rooms, caterers and cast and crew members who are Mississippi residents. The filmmaker receives back an actual rebate check in the amount of 25% of the "Mississippi spend".

Having talked to several filmmakers who have come to the state, I have learned that they like this procedure because they can use the rebate money to help with post-production of the film. This is one reason why Mississippi has attracted so many small movies of late as their limited budgets make our state seem very attractive.

For those of you worried that we are subsidizing the slander of our state, be aware that most of the movies made here lately are not about Mississippi. Recent examples include "Starve", which aired on the SyFy channel, never mentioned a state,"Life at These Speeds", currently at Sundance,is set in Missouri and even Faith Hill's "Dixieland" was set in a generic southern state.

It appears that the Legislature in enacting the program had set aside up to $20 million per year for incentives.We are only spending a fraction of that each year. Because of the nature of the film industry,I think it is very difficult to tell exactly how much money is generated by these films coming to the state so it is certainly premature to cancel the program.One tweak might be to require some percentage of the crew to be Mississippi residents in order to receive the rebate. This would create additional jobs here and lead to a better trained workforce. It would also give the filmmakers an excuse to keep out the union thugs from New Orleans who frequently try to muscle their way onto Mississippi productions at the expense of local crew.