Film incentives do help the state
April 23, 2010 by M. Adler

Regarding Sen. Cassis's letter which echoes statements made by the Policy Center... What many people don’t seem to realize is that FTE jobs are diminishing in general.

As the Center full well knows, the majority of jobs added as a result of the film incentives are considered seasonal and freelance - areas that BLS does not count. Seasonal workers work from project to project…it IS hard to count, but a prestigious ‘think tank’ like the center should be able to suss that out if they found it in their interest (which it should be!!)

One crew member, as an example worked the entire year with only weeks off on feature films. That’s nearly 8 films. Do the math. Nearly 100 crew members on each film. Nearly 70 MI vendors ON EACH FILM. That allows businesses that were in trouble to KEEP people on the payroll. Hotels, gas stations, coffee shops, businesses that are not associated with film but benefit from them. That’s not to mention the jobs created and maintained by educational resources to support and grow the industry.

So when the Center puts out this load of false self serving information – they do a disservice to the state of Michigan.

M. Adler
Michigan Production Alliance