What Did The Iowa Media Say When The Film Tax Credit Scam Was Passed By The Iowa Legislature?

Lee Rood has a story in the Des Moines Register on Sunday about how there's likely more criminal scandals expected involving the taxpayer-backed tax credits scam passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2007.

To be perfectly blunt: who cares?

What I want to know is: what did the Iowa media say when this turkey was being trumpeted in the media in 2006 and 2007, and then eventually passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2007 on a vote in the House of 95-1 and in the Senate of 48-2?

Where were the gatekeepers keeping our government in check? You know, all that stuff super-sized Register reporterette Nancy Clark said that the mainstream media does in 2005 that bloggers don't do. And I quote: "The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed."

Let's go to the wayback machine and find out!

Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 30, 2007, editorial:

Passing a tax incentive for film production isn't a necessary function of state government. Children won't go hungry if the Legislature waits a year or two. Schools won't shut down if bills quietly die before they reach the floor, as they have in the past. And even if passed, the legislation won't clean our air and water, it won't expand quality health care coverage, nor will it directly shore up the state's highway infrastructure.

The legislation will make it easier, however, for those wishing to make a film about Iowa to actually use the state's landscapes and interior scenes in the production. When those production crews are willing to spend more than $100,000 in the state, the legislation would make it more likely that the money paid on all levels -- from the cameras to the catering -- will find its way into the coffers of Iowa businesses. And, whether or not an actual Iowan is in the director's chair, these productions would provide work for our homegrown filmmakers and actors.

Those material benefits alone are enough to support a film incentive bill that Rep. Mark Davitt of Indianola will be introducing to the Legislature this week.

Oh yes, Democrat Mark Davitt of Indianola, who lost in 2008 by less than 200 votes to Republican Kent Sorenson. By the way, Sorenson is going to take on Socialist kook Staci Appel for her Senate seat in November and beat her. Hopefully Davitt won't be running for his old seat again. If he does try, I hope any opponent hammers the creator of the Film Tax Credit Scandal repeatedly about this issue.

Now where were we?

The Senate bill also includes the sales tax exemption, but went further to offer a 25 percent tax credit for qualified in-state purchases, a 180-day vehicle registration fee waiver for vehicles used in the production of the film and a 10 percent tax credit to anyone investing in the film.

And what does that mean?

Here's blogger and tax guy Joe Kristan at the Tax Update Blog to tell you a little more on April 11, 2007:

Like rubes rushing the patent medicine wagon, the Iowa House almost unanimously voted for a rich special interest giveaway for the film industry yesterday. By a 95-1 margin the House approved HF 892 to provide a 50% subsidy to film projects, and then some:

- A 25% tranferable tax credit for expenditures on a film project;
- A 25% credit for investors in film projects; and
- a tax exemption for sales of goods and services to film projects.

Because the credits are transferable, the filmmakers can sell them to finance their projects. This feature makes this tax credit a subsidy, rather than just a tax break.

If it weren't tax season, I would spend more time pointing out just how absurd this thing is. Why is this one industry - an itinerant one that leaves nothing behind but empty fast food wrappers - somehow worthy of being subsidized by every other business? The standard line about how much the filmmakers bring to the economy can be said about any business - more so, in fact, about the ones that stay here and provide permanent jobs, and who end up paying for this subsidy.

Emphasis added by State 29.

And what did the Des Moines Register's Reporterette Jennifer Jacobs rubber-stamp back on April 11, 2007?:

Various tax credits would reduce state revenue by about $201,000 in the coming fiscal year, then $536,000 the year after and $786,000 by 2010, according to Iowa's Fiscal Services Division.

But the tax losses would be outweighed by the film companies' spending, said Rep. Mark Davitt, a Democrat from Indianola who has worked on the legislation for four years.

How did that work out in the end?

OH! It didn't work out! Instead it's costing Iowa taxpayers many tens of millions of dollars!

What else did Jennifer Jacobs and the Des Moines Register take for granted?

Incentives for projects

- Film producers would be allowed a state tax credit equal to 25 percent of the cost of items they purchase or rent in Iowa, such as rental cars, equipment for the movie set and the wages of people hired as extras.

- Iowa-based businesses - such as firms providing camera or sound equipment - would be able to exclude the income they're paid for goods, materials or services for a film project from their income tax reporting.

- Any investors who sink cash into the project would be eligible for an income tax credit equal to 25 percent of what's spent in Iowa.

Gee, I don't see the word transferable in that Jennifer Jacobs/Des Moines Register article.

Looks like the busy capitalist pig/tax blogger guy knew more about what was going on than the smarter-than-you Democrat bootlicker Jennifer Jacobs.

And what was the Register printing after the bill passed? Here's equally clueless "reporter" Jonathan Roos on April 19, 2007:

The tax incentive plan, which received final legislative approval Wednesday, created a lot of buzz at an international film commissioners trade show in California this month, said Tom Wheeler, manager of the Iowa Film Office...

...The Senate, on a 48-2 vote on Wednesday, approved the tax incentives contained in House File 892. They would give producers a state tax credit equal to 25 percent of the cost of items they purchase or rent in Iowa, such as cars, equipment for the movie set and the wages of people hired as extras.

Other tax incentives would be offered to investors, as well as Iowa businesses that provide goods and services, such as camera or sound equipment, for a film project.

The incentives are designed to make Iowa competitive with states such as Louisiana and Illinois that have had lured movie producers to locations away from Hollywood.

"It's going to put Iowa on the map once more," Sen. Bill Dotzler, a Waterloo Democrat, said.

Isn't it obvious that Jonathan Roos didn't know what he was reporting on here? He just reprinted whatever now-indicted Iowa Film Office head Tom Wheeler and State Senator Democrat Bill Dotzler told him.

Hey, Dotzler, ya big dummy, that film tax credit thing you championed put Iowa on the map, all right. Just look at what happens when you Google the words iowa film tax credit. You're a real winner, there Dotzler. You idiot. They should throw you in prison, too, for theft of the People's money, along with the rest of the drunks and morons in the Iowa Legislature that vote for these bills they clearly haven't read and don't understand.

So it looks like the lamestream media in Iowa just went along with the game. They just repeated what they were told. They didn't bother to research the tax credits, think about what implications the credits might have had, speculate on what sort of influence filmmakers might put on the Iowa Film Office, or any of that. No, no, no, no. They just rubber stamped whatever Mark Davitt, Tom Wheeler, and Bill Dotzler yammered on about. Don't call any tax people, especially in early April, to get their opinion on the matter.

And if you were a blogger at the time, the geniuses at the Des Moines Register didn't want to hear anything you had to say. As far as Ken Fuson and Nancy Clark and their editors were concerned "The information has been verified, has been scrutinized by editors, has been fact-checked and proofed."

That's why I say "Who cares?" when it comes to Lee Rood's ongoing stories in the Des Moines Register about this scandal. The Register didn't care to research the bill to any extent, and now they get to act like they're performing a public service by rifling through all these government documents in the aftermath. "Look at us, we're reporters! We're soooo pious!" What a load of stinking crap.