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Wednesday Harold Hill Film Credit Follies roundup

September 23, 2009

The Des Moines Register has figured out who got the fancy cars paid for by Iowa's taxpayers:

Mike Tramontina, who resigned last week as director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, sent letters to two veteran Hollywood filmmakers — Bruce Isacson and Donald Borchers — on Aug. 6, notifying them of errors made in the amount of tax-credit certificates issued to them by the state, documents obtained Tuesday by The Des Moines Register show.

Isacson, who filmed the movie "South Dakota" last spring near Earlham, reportedly now owns a 2008 Range Rover purchased for $61,000 in March 2008 for use related to the movie, said Erin Seidler, spokeswoman for the economic development department.

Borchers, a director known for horror films, remade the movie "Children of the Corn" last year and reportedly owns a 2008 Mercedes purchased for his movie for $67,783 in August 2008, Seidler said.

The film industry is struggling to cope with its temporarily-unsubsidized existence. WHOTV.com brings us the sad cry of a struggling starlet:

As the state investigates the tax credit program, many in the industry say there's no reason why future projects should be put on hold. "Are the politicians gonna screw this up?" asks Kim Grimaldi. The Iowa actress landed a supporting role in Dylan's Wake. Grimaldi says the movie business was about to take off before the state put the brakes on the film tax credits.

Will the politicians screw this up? They already have, honey. They enacted this thing, after all. But what's a Benz compared to a chance to get a supporting role in a B-movie?

Hollywood is following the scandal, no doubt with scornful amusement, as the LA Times reports:

Ah, Iowa, land of corn -- and now, movie-making corruption.

The Farm Belt is learning a painful lesson these days in the glitzy, star-studded world of Hollywood's accounting practices: Like in the baseball movie "Field of Dreams," if you build it, they will come ... and may take your tax dollars to buy things you don't want to pay for.

Oh, but surely we'd be happy to buy each producer a nice car, once it was explained that it is for our own good.

After leaving the doors unlocked and the money stacked on the table by the picture window, the legislature is looking into how the money got stolen, reports O. Kay Henderson.

The Bleeding Heartland blog defends Governor Culver from partisan attacks on his administration's mismanagement of the film credits. It's a hopeless task. Even so, those attacking the Governor are throwing stones from a glass house, as every one of them voted for the credit program.

The Iowa Independent Blog has a long piece that quotes critics of the program:

Victor Elias, a senior policy associate with the nonpartisan Child and Family Policy Center, said his organization, along with the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project, began looking at the tax credit program this summer. What they found was a program that was growing exponentially with practically no demonstrable benefit to taxpayers.

But quite a benefit to the producers!

Mike Glover says the investigation will go on for months. That has to make the Governor reach for the asprin bottle.

Tags: Bleeding Heartland.Corporate welfare.economic development.film credits.harold hill.Iowa Independent.Iowa tax policy.O Kay Henderson.

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