I’m sorry ma’am, but he died on the table…

According to the June 22nd edition of the Providence Journal, the tax credits for the Hopkinton movie studio were “not approved” as the RI Legislature passed next fiscal year’s budget onto the governor and closed up shop for the summer.  A search of the RI Legislative database indicates that the bill was tabled on May 28^th and no further action has been taken, effectively killing the bill until the next session convenes later this year.  Hal Katersky’s people have said they will not come to Hopkinton without the “movie studio” credit so unless they change their minds, I guess we can all agree that Elvis has indeed, left the building.  You can read the text of the bill below, it’s fascinating:

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/billtext08/housetext08/h7456.pdf

Going back a little further, it seems that not everyone in the State is so convinced this whole project isn’t just an exercise in futility.  The Providence Journal reports from May 19^th,

Costantino [chair of the House finance committee] questioned whether the state can afford to assist a movie studio, given the budget deficit.

“If you’re going to say you have jobs, then you’ll have to prove you have the jobs and then you’ll get the credit,” Costantino said, offering a possible amendment. “It’s as simple as that because I don’t think Hopkinton wants an empty building.”  [Hopkinton Underground Note:  Damn straight, says I!]

And from the same article, we learn that Rhode Island already has a movie studio in North Kingstown.  It’s small but it’s fully functional.  Unfortunately, business is slow.

What nobody said in last night’s hearing is that Rhode Island already has an 85,000 square-foot studio. North Kingstown’s Kay Studios offers shooting and production spaces and five acres of outdoor lots. Kay also owns a smaller facility in East Providence that’s set up for special effects and television shoots. 

Now the guys who run this operation say that business is slow because we wanted to implement a 20% cap on movie production.  This didn’t happen however, because the amendment to the law was tabled, which included the 20% cap plus the movie studio.  The current law can be found in section 44-31.25 of the RI statutes and limits the credit to 25% of a motion picture productions investment.   The law reads as follows:

The amount of the credit shall be twenty-five percent (25%) of the state certified production costs incurred directly attributable to activity within the state, provided that the primary locations are within the state of Rhode Island and the total production budget as defined herein is a minimum of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000). The credit shall be earned in the taxable year in which production in Rhode Island is completed, as determined by the film office in final certification pursuant to subsection 44-31.2-6(c).

Remember how I said these credits can be sold?  That’s all spelled out in section 44-31.2-9, if you are interested.

But the folks at Kay Studios say that our tax cap is causing LA angina over filming in Rhode Island, driving production to Massachusetts.  Excuse me for saying so, but that is a load of crap.  Massachusetts already has an established production infrastructure and the city of Boston.  How many movies have you seen filmed in or near Boston?  The answer is hundreds.  How many have been filmed in or around any of Rhode Island?  The answer is a half-a-dozen.  Massachusetts is a better site with a famous city, famous teams and gets national play.  We simply do not.  It has little to do with a 20% vs. a 25% credit (both RI and MA have a 25% cap right now into the Fall). The exact quote from this article is:

“We’ve heard L.A. is not looking at Rhode Island because they’re not sure if we’re committed to the movie industry,” Gormley said. “So for now we’re on hold.”

And I have heard that the moon is made of cheese but I’m not planning on building a lunar cheese factory any time soon.  And one more note, they are now planning on building two movie studios in Massachusetts, outside of Boston.  But why not put them in the Berkshires, it’s such a lovely place?  Because it’s all about location, location, location and niether we nor the Berkshires have it.