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State paid for Depp’s hairdo
‘Public Enemies’ star gets royal treatment on taxpayers’ dollar due to new incentives
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Also by Matt Tanger:
- Wisconsin 5th in energy efficiency (May 3, 2009)
- WI to get $30 million for cops (March 8, 2009)
- Doyle gives $2.3 billion tax credit (March 30, 2009)
- Doyle adds full funding for rails to his wish list (March 24, 2009)
- Obama drops stem cell limits (March 10, 2009)
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Following “Public Enemies,” the motion picture filmed at various locations in Wisconsin starring Johnny Depp, the tax incentive program for movie productions in the state has come into question.
During filming, taxpayer contributions covered a quarter of director Michael Mann’s salary, as well as entertainment, food and living expenses for various crewmembers.
About $100,000 of tax credits even covered some of the cost of Depp’s assistants, hair stylists and chauffeurs, according to Wisconsin Department of Commerce Communication Director Tony Hozeny.
When last year’s tax incentive was passed, it allowed movie producers to take advantage of a tax credit on movies they shoot on location in Wisconsin. Under the incentive, a movie production may be eligible for a 25 percent tax credit on its expenses associated with producing the movie.
While the incentive covered nearly $4.6 million in the production of “Public Enemies,” at least 1,600 jobs were created during shooting, according to a statement by Vans Stevenson, Motion Picture Association of America’s vice president for state legislative affairs.
Stevenson added Universal Studios spent over $18 million in Wisconsin because they felt welcomed by the tax break.
In a letter written to Gov. Jim Doyle dated Jan. 5, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton praised the success of the year-old program and suggested ways to improve incentives.
She pointed that setting the cap at $5 million annually may cause producers to think twice about coming to Wisconsin, according to Lawton spokesperson Ben Nuckles.
“The tax incentives from the film, television and video game industry have created hundreds of jobs and brought millions of dollars into the economy in Wisconsin,” Nuckles said. “There was a lot of success in its first year.”
Critics of the incentive argue the benefits of bringing in big-ticket movie productions to the state like “Public Enemies” do not outweigh the cost to the state’s taxpayers.
According to Hozeny, the current tax credit allows workers from outside of Wisconsin to receive breaks, and said he believes the incentives should help provide Wisconsin workers the opportunity of jobs when production crews roll in.
“With ‘Public Enemies,’ there wasn’t much economic impact to Wisconsin,” Hozeny said. “We believe this incentive should give us the opportunity to actually create a real film infrastructure that lasts and benefits businesses and workers here.”
David Fantle of VISIT Milwaukee feels that the numbers presented by the MPAA are promising and will lead to economic benefits as more movies are made here in Wisconsin.
“VISIT is excited because film and television is a 12-months-a-year business,” Fantle said. “If you can get a shoot in January or February, these are times that add a significant economic impact to those communities. Film has the potential to be the gift that keeps on giving.”
“Public Enemies” is scheduled for release in early July.
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Oh boo hoo get over it. Hopefully no other major film will bother with your hick town if this is the kind of grumbling you do. Picking on an actor who had nothing to do with your poxy contract is just low. but then doesn’t surprise me. The media and public certainly got their two cents worth from Depp hounding him 24/7 when he was shooting the film. Reporting on just about his every move. From where he ate and stayed to how much he was tipping waitresses. It was the most exciting thing to happen for a long time for the majority for you but because it didn’t turn into the cash cow all your beedy little councillers promised it would instead of blaming themselves for the mishandling of the deal they blame an easy target.
The only thing that really matters is whether the program resulted in a net gain for the state’s finances or not. By creating 1600 jobs for people who would pay taxes in Wisconsin and need less public assistance from Wisconsin, and by investing millions of dollars for the production of the movie, it’s clear that the benefit to the state exceeded the $4.6 million cost of the program.
So what if some of the tax break was spent on someone’s hair? If you want to cut the program because of that, you’ll hurt the state even more. It’s simple math.
“Incentives” are a foreign concept to Mr. Tanger, it seems.
Get us angry when this film costs the state more than it makes. A $1 profit is still a profit.
Who cares, I don’t see many big budget movies coming to Wisconsin over the next few years, so I don’t see why the state needs to be paying the directors salary. That should be done by the Studio, complete waste of tax money that could be given to our underfunded school systems so they don’t have to cut phy ed and arts programs. Jim Doyle is a piece of work…
I’m just going to throw this out there, but I think the headline would have been more effective if the word “coiffure” were used instead of the more quotidian “hairdo.”
I agree with the comments posted at 7:48am on Feb 16th. Based on how the filming of this movie was handled, I will be very surprised if another studio considers Wisconsin as a possible location. Depp was constantly pestered; filming locations were continously posted on blogs, despite repeated warnings to stop; local townfolks sold pictures to the National Enquirer, which led to ridiculous stories that didn’t need to be printed; and now the state has the audacity to complain that the profit wasn’t big enough or that Depp got a haircut at the taxpayers’ expense. Based on how he was treated here, you’re lucky a haircut was all he ‘took’ from you. You certainly ‘took’ enough from him.