New York’s $7.7 billion in handouts for the film industry came under scrutiny Wednesday — as state lawmakers seized on a new analysis showing taxpayers aren’t getting the best bang for their bucks.
“For three quarters of a billion dollars I question how that is really helping small businesses generally,” Ranslow told lawmakers. Brian O’Leary, tax counsel for the Motion Picture Association, an industry group pushing for the incentives, also pointed to the other reports to try and prove the program’s worth.
“We know we’re walking into an era where we expect far less cooperation or funding from our federal government. We have to get smarter in New York state about what programs we operate, whether they are worth their salt, whether they are a bad use of the public’s money,” Krueger said.