Report: DiCaprio, Scorsese's 'Wolf' Cost NY
Taxpayers $30 Million
by Breitbart News 22 Jan 2014,
4:34 PM PDT
It's the kind of money maneuver
disgraced stock broker Jordan Belfort would applaud.
Martin Scorsese's The
Wolf of Wall Street, nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture,
got a cozy tax break from the state of New York
where the movie was shot.
How cozy?
Thanks to state law, The Wolf of Wall Street received a
30-percent tax credit from New
York State,
which means taxpayers paid for $30 million of the movie's $100 million budget,
according to the Manhattan Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan economic research
and policy group.
The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, a Wall Street hustler who made
millions while ripping off ordinary Americans.
Wolf isn't the only Hollywood film to get such a tax break. Numerous
Oscar-nominated films, including Dallas Buyers Club, Gravity and American
Hustle received similar incentives.
It's routine for studios to seek
out such deals and move their productions accordingly. It's why the new Mayor
of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, is desperately trying to keep productions local
despite the lure of tax breaks in places like Vancouver and New Mexico.
Politicians argue the tax breaks
invigorate the local economy, but the right-leaning Manhattan Institute argues
those benefits tend to be fleeting.
Film production may create jobs in
a given state, but they usually disappear by the time filming wraps up, marking
only a blip in long-term employment efforts. The lure of a movie set and its
stars may boost tourism, but that economic benefit is temporary too. Bigger
specialized tax breaks also usually mean reduced revenue, which means
"states have less money spend on teachers, roads and police," the
Manhattan Institute report explains.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that Louisiana, one of the more generous states
regarding film tax breaks, also doesn't see the return on investment promised.
In 2010, Louisiana spent $196.8 million on film tax
credits. But according to an analysis by the BaxStarr Consulting Group, film
production generated just $27 million in state tax revenues and $17.3 million
in local revenues.
The Tax Foundation notes the
dramatic ups-and-downs of these state subsidies. In 2000, there were only
three. By 2010, 40 states had adopted some form of tax break. But since that
peak, nine states have abandoned these incentives.
New
York
Michael R.
Bloomberg was the New York (NY) mayor, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and a donor for
the Robin Hood Foundation.
Note: Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Harlem Children's Zone, the Robin
Hood Foundation, the Human Rights
Watch, Refugees International, and
the Natural Resources Defense Council,
George
Soros was a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, a benefactor for the Human
Rights Watch, the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, and is a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Joanne
Leedom-Ackerman was a director at the Human
Rights Watch, a reporter for the Christian
Science Monitor, is a board member for the International Crisis Group, and a director at Refugees International.
Barbra
Streisand Foundation was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, and the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
Barbra Streisand
is the founder of the Barbra Streisand
Foundation, and a William Morris
Endeavor Entertainment client.
Martin
Scorsese is a William Morris
Endeavor Entertainment client, and a director for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
Leonardo DiCaprio
is an actor in The Wolf of Wall Street
(2013), and a trustee at the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
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