Subsidized by government, MI film industry shrinks

It has been two years since Michigan's film subsidy program became law, which is sufficient for it to have gotten off the ground and had some measureable impact on the state's economy.

According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of September 2009 (the most recent month available*), there were fewer people employed by the film industry in Michigan than before the subsidy program began.

The film subsidy program was signed into law on April 7, 2008. In that month there were 5,867 jobs in Michigan's "motion picture and sound recording industries," the industrial classification that most closely fits the target industry for the program. By last September these jobs had fallen to 5,290, a 9.8 percent decline.

While the program's impact on the overall state economy is too small to measure, its effects on taxes and the budget are significant. The state has authorized $117 million in film credits, and the Department of Treasury estimates that the subsidies will cost $155 million in the upcoming fiscal year. This is equivalent to 7 percent of what the entire Michigan Business Tax currently extracts from businesses.