I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Michigan is the most generous state in the nation when it comes to providing tax incentives to movie production companies looking for places to shoot films.
But the state’s 42 percent tax break, established in 2008, could be reduced under two bills being debated in the state Senate.
According to the Capital News Service, under the measures, the tax break would be reduced to 35 percent. Also, tax credits would be capped at $50 million per year for all films produced in Michigan.
“The money we give out for film tax credit is money that could’ve gone to universities, parks, the Great Lakes, prisoner maintenance or other publicly funded things,” Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, a co-sponsor of the measures, told the news service.
“I’m not for getting rid of the tax credit. It has brought industry and business to the state. But we won’t be able to provide health care to the poor while writing checks to film makers.”
The motivation behind the tax credits was to provide an economic shot-in-the-arm to the state’s lagging economy.
The New York Times recently reported that the tax credits cost Michigan taxpayers about $48 million in their first year, while generating about $53.8 million in new employment income, and the equivalent of 1,102 full-time jobs.
Tax revenue isn’t the only thing that’s being lost.
Nearly two-dozen films were made in Michigan since last April. However, most of them never were shown in theatres, save “Gran Torino” and “Youth in Revolt.”
The rest made their way to showings in festivals, or were made available in video stores or pay-per-view outlets.
Chris Killian is a freelance journalist based in Kalamazoo and writes regularly for the Kalamazoo Gazette.
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