The real bounty from Iowa's Hollywood tax breaks: Filmmakers buy fancy new cars!

I've been so busy wading through the wonderfully colorful New Yorker profile of Jim Cameron that I almost missed this sharp-elbowed Wall Street Journal piece about how Iowa's lavish tax incentive plan, designed to lure a host of Hollywood movies to the cornfield-studded state, has ground to a shrieking halt amid what the Journal's Joe Barrett calls "allegations of faulty oversight, poor record-keeping and potentially criminal abuse."

In the past few years, whenever I've phoned a movie producer, they've invariably returned the call from some distant state where they've been shooting their latest film, thanks to a generous tax break plan passed by that state's legislature. It was a great way to knock a few million bucks off a film's budget while being treated as visiting royalty, a big step up from the grumpy reception filmmakers often get when shooting in Los Angeles.

But leave it to Hollywood to kill the golden goose. As the Journal story points out, some of the filmmakers in Iowa managed to exploit the state's largesse by using its 50% tax credit to buy a wealth of pricey goods for themselves. One director, Bruce Isacson, whose film, "South Dakota," received $1.7 million in tax breaks, bought a $61,000 Range Rover and a feather bed. Another director, Donald Borchers, who shot a "Children of the Corn" remake in the state, purchased a $67,000 Mercedes-Benz.

While its nice to know that the movie industry still has a few old-fashioned hedonists who prefer gas guzzlers to eco-conscious Priuses, the sight of Hollywood types helping themselves to personal tax breaks didn't go over so well in Iowa. The governor has suspended the tax credit program, the state film program's director has been fired, and his bosses at the Iowa Department of Economic Development resigned. The state attorney general is moving ahead with a criminal investigation.

My favorite quote comes from Isacson. When asked to justify his Range Rover purchase, he explained that the SUV doubled as his office on the set, saying, "I could have rented an RV." I guess that means he was really doing what all great Hollywood filmmakers do -- making a big sacrifice for his art. 

Comments

[Pecos 45]

And this is news because?????

Film producers have ALWAYS pulled this kind of stuff. Does anyone besides myself remember the phrase "Hollywood bookkeeping"???
The over-charge, over-bill,and then insist that the picture didn't make any money.
Sounds more like business as usual than a scoop.
But that's just me.

[Troy Rutter]

The best part about Isacson is he has one credit, a bit part as an actor in the movie Outbreak. And the IMDB still doesn't list his film "South Dakota" in its database.

Doing a search, it is confusing as to whether "South Dakota" is a documentary or a film. Having worked on the "movie" I am disappointed, but really not surprised.

Maybe Mr. Isacson will tell us the status of this "movie" now that his name is out in the lights again.

[Gene L. Hamilton]

Most of the news coverage on the Iowa film tax credit crisis has been sensationalist, which does nothing to help we actors here in the Tall Corn State. Sure, a few movie-makers abused the tax incentive program, but most of the producers are honest. Our governor, Chet Culver, should be scrutinized and sensationalized. It was our governor's sudden and total freezing of the film program that forced many films to relocate and for thousands of Iowans to lose their movie-related jobs. I am one of those Iowans, an actor who was fortunate to have had bit parts in four SAG movies this year alone. Just when Iowa was beginning to establish a new and lucrative industry with the creation of production studios here, and just as many Iowans were embarking on wonderful careers in film, the rug was jerked from underneath us and now we're bruised and aching badly.
gene l. hamilton, SAG member