Montana losing movie work to Canada

Film producer Patrick Markey, whose work includes the made-in-Montana movies "A River Runs Through It" and "The Horse Whisperer," says it’s now typical to hear three words when talk turns to Montana as a filming location.

Those words: "What about Canada?"

Associated Press

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"The story’s the same every time," said Markey, who made his home here after producing the river movie in 1991, the start of mostly robust decade for film work in Montana.

Other countries have offered tax breaks and additional incentives for movie makers to venture outside the United States for filming.

Sten Iversen, director of the Montana Film Office, figures that since Canada put its incentives on the table and the exodus began in the late 1990s, Montana easily has lost $100 million to places north of the border.

Alberta and British Columbia sub for Montana on the big screen, just as Montreal and Toronto regularly stand in for New York City.

Some states are fighting back.

Dozens already waive sales taxes for production companies, wiping out a financial advantage Montana used to offer because it has no general sales tax. Other states are more aggressive.

The year before New Mexico lawmakers leveled the playing field with countries like Canada and New Zealand, production companies spent $8 million in that state. The next year, with incentives in place, they spent $80 million.

Markey said he wants Montana to resume competing for the Hollywood dollar.

For the fourth straight year, the Montana Film Rendezvous held in Livingston was dedicated largely to reinvigorating Montana as a filming location.

Conference speakers included representatives of film offices in Louisiana and Mississippi which, like New Mexico, tries hard to lure film crews.

Since Louisiana put incentives in place a couple of years ago, production companies have spent $251 million there. Of that, $40 million has been payroll expense, said Mark Smith of the Louisiana Film Office.

"Louisiana gives incentives to industry all the time," Smith said. "We have (an NBA) basketball team because of tax incentives. How many jobs were created by that? I’m sure your state gives incentives to industries all the time, too. The question is, why not this one?"

Louisiana offers production companies that spend at least $250,000 within 12 months a sales-tax exemption for a range of purchases. Other incentives include an employment tax credit, and reimbursement of the state’s 14.9 percent hotel tax after 30 consecutive days of lodging.

The Montana Film Office is helping to write proposals for the 2005 Legislature to consider.

"The Legislature is not interested in subsidizing an industry," Iversen said. "It’s a jobs-creation bill, and it needs to pay for itself. We need to show them we’ll not only grow jobs, we’ll grow the tax coffers."

The draft legislation still is taking shape. As it stands now, the measure would require the film office to show that what the state gave away through incentives would be recouped within two years, through the economic impact of movie production.

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