State needs to explore impact of movie tax credits

Livingston Daily | February 1, 2009

A couple of scenes linger from the filming of the movie "High School" in Howell late last year.

One was the vision of a film crew shoveling all of the snow from a home's front yard. Then there were actors sucking ice cubes so their breath wouldn't show in the cold when they talked.

These steps were necessary because, while filming took place outside in Michigan in November and December, the story for the movie actually takes place in Southern California, where snow doesn't cover front lawns and where it's usually not cold enough to see your breath.

Why, then, didn't the production company film somewhere warm? The answer is easy. Because of a so-called refundable tax credit offered by the state of Michigan, the production could recoup up to 40 percent of its expenses.

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