In Suffolk County, Massachusetts, a new wrinkle on the old Producers-like scam hit the spotlight as a grand jury indicted Daniel Adams, a film impresario with several films under his belt, on ten counts larceny and false claims to the state in the financing of two movies set in the Cape Cod area, The Golden Boys (2008) and The Lightkeepers (2009).
According to Boston.com, Adams is charged with taking “advantage of a state incentive that allows film makers to apply for a tax credit equal to 25 percent of eligible production expenses. But prosecutors said he deceived the state about his expenses, claiming, for instance, that he paid [actor Richard] Dreyfuss $2.5 million, when in fact he paid him only $400,000.”
Adams has pleaded not guilty, and his legal standing is for a jury to decide.
More important is the general policy — funding movies is just not a legitimate use of tax money.
The only possibly legitimate argument for taxation is that the forcibly extracted money serves all the people it’s extracted from, by fulfilling very general, truly public interests. Making movies is not that.
One wag notes that “[t]he real crime is that a movie starring Richard Dreyfuss ever qualified for taxpayer funds in the first place.” That sounds almost like a criticism of Dreyfuss. Hey, I like the actor.
The point is that no film, either starring the greatest of greats or the least of unknowns, should be financed with conscripted money.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
2 replies on “Pacé Richard Dreyfuss”
I agree Paul.
I would even go one step further. Who or what business needs incentive with tax dollars to make money? Answer: none. They will go make money where ever they can. The natural law of selection will sort out the details.
Imagine giving Halliburton a 10 million dollar tax break to find oil. The 10 million just goes from the tax payers in to the pockets of the Halliburton stockholders. Sick.
The reason these kind of laws exist is so the politicians get campaign cash from those who seek to benefit from it. Rick Perry has his slush fund, congressman/senators have their earmarks, and taxpayers get the shaft.