the Hollywood tax break epidemic reaches Michigan

From the Detroit News:

Officials at the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau plan to fund and staff a regional film office if the state approves tax breaks for studios to shoot here. Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin and Canada already offer such breaks and reap hundreds of millions of dollars in business, said Chris Baum, senior vice president of the bureau.

"Right now, we are in a deep hole," he said. "We need the Legislature to pass a competitive tax incentive."

The article fails to mention exactly how the regional film office will be funded and staffed. Someone is going to have to pay, and it likely won't be the tax breaks or the Visitors Bureau's budget (remember, they are in a deep hole).

Here are my two favorite parts of the article:

1) "Tourism officials want to turn Motown into Showtown." Journalism at its finest.

2) "'It's absolutely essential that Michigan have some type of incentive package that will be competitive,' said Emery King, a former TV news anchor who leads the Michigan Film Advisory Commission." Read, "'It's absolutely essential that Michigan have some type of incentive package that will keep my job relevant,' said Emery King, a former TV news anchor who leads the Michigan Film Advisory Commission."