I was listening to the Dan York show the other day and he was interviewing Governor Carcieri. I don’t usually listen to York, he spends a lot of his time fanning the flames of discontent and whining without actually having any facts. That aside, he was lobbing softballs at the Governor and he asked him about casinos. Carcieri said something very insightful (for a change). He pointed out that when every state has a casino, it no longer benefits any state to have a casino. He didn’t clarify the issue beyond that but he is right. People will go to a casino more frequently when it is close and if you are not drawing out-of-staters, it’s just taking the money from your own low and low-to-middle class. It makes them poorer and it makes the state poorer. More specifically, he called it just another tax and that’s close to the truth. The truth is, however, that a tax is much better because at least all the money that you take from these poor suckers then goes straight to the State and Harrah’s doesn’t get a cut. How much money do they need anyway?
The same is pretty much true for movie studios. If everyone has a movie studio, then there is no real benefit to anyone having one. Lets be honest, there is no way that New England could support a movie production facility (like the one being proposed at exit 2) in every state. It is unlikely that there is even a need for two of them. And that is really the crux of this post.
Plymouth Rock Studios (http://www.plymouthrockstudios.com/) is being proposed for development in Plymouth Massachusetts. It appears to be very similar to the operation being proposed for Exit 2, but with some notable exceptions:
1. Plymouth Rockis being built at $282 million. The Exit 2 Project is only a $75 million venture
2. Plymouth Rock is being built by people who actually ran movie studios. The Exit 2 Project is being proposed by a guy who has a hard time staying off the wrong side of a court room.
3. It looks like the Plymouth Rock people are dead serious. See the following link about licensing for the famous Hollywood sign to be used in Plymouth: http://www.businesswire.com
4. Massachusetts already had an established and thriving movie production infrastructure which appears to be getting larger. This comes courtesy of the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com). The article is mostly a lot of guesstimated numbers and anecdotal information, but it does at least show that Massachusetts can support movie production in a way that Rhode Island cannot.
5. Plymouth Rock Studios has a kick ass website. The Exit 2 Project doesn’t even know what the internet is.
So is there really enough movie studio business in the Northeast for Hopkinton, Plymouth Rock and whatever other Johnny-come-lately decides to build in Connecticut? You can have gas stations on every corner and no one complains. We all need gas. But how many movie studios do you need in New England? And the last sentence of the NYTimes articles spells it out pretty clearly, movie producers are whores and will go to which ever location gives them the biggest bribe:
“It’s about the money,” Ms. Peri acknowledges. “If they can get 42 percent rebate in Michigan, they’ll just pack up and find a way to make Michigan look like Paris”
And eventually they will be getting 50 and 75% tax credits somewhere else (and god forbid rebates) and happy little Hopkinton will be left with a bankrupt movie studio that that amounts to another piece of blighted landscape. How about we start thinking of some sustainable activities for once? How about we choose NOT to jump on the bandwagon heading for a cliff.
Your Neighbor, Ishmael
June 23, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hi Ishmael,
You bring up so valid points here, some points that should make us look into this deal a little more deeply. I will admit, when I first heard about “Hollywood coming to town” I was pretty excited. Now that some time has passed and heads are more cooled down, now is the time to look at what is really being proposed. On the flip side, if the project ends up being successful (and let’s be honest, those that end up on the wrong side of court battles tend to come out on top in the end) this could be a major boon for Hopkinton.
June 23, 2008 at 3:25 pm
“and let’s be honest, those that end up on the wrong side of court battles tend to come out on top in the end”
Well I guess that’s real faith in the American Justice system for you! Katersky has not been very successful throughout the span of his career. He has generally lost each suit brought against him or at least pushed it into indefinite stalemate. The guy is not a winner. But suppose he does come out on top? Who do you think the loser will be? Most likely it will be Hopkinton and the State of Rhode Island.
This is not going to be a boon for Hopkinton. All the employees are going to be coming from out-of-state. And it is likely the Town will negotiate it’s own tax deal with them so we probably won’t ever see increased Town revenue. The whole thing is a farce. Luckily, the State of Rhode Island killed the tax credit outright yesterday so the whole thing will be yesterdays news shortly. Oh wait, it is yesterday’s news!
June 26, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Haha, well I do indeed have a lack of faith in the US justice system – and it is well deserved. Actually, I was initially thinking about rabbler-rousers and those who just don’t quit when I made that comment (take for example the seperationists who created this nation, and Thomas Edison who failed – or didn’t fail – ten thousand times before his success). Believe me, he’ll be back again to try something else.