NYS Taxpayers on Pace to Shell Out Nearly a Billion to Hollywood Producers in 2025
New ESD data reveals Q1 2025 payout of $230 million,
New data shows New York State taxpayers are on pace to shell out $920 million in payments to Hollywood film and TV producers in 2025. Despite historically massive cuts in federal aid targeted at the most vulnerable New Yorkers being right around the corner, the Governor and State Legislature are lavishing super-rich Hollywood producers and massive multinational corporations with record amounts of taxpayer funds.
In Q1 2025, each full-time job in the film and TV industry costs NYS taxpayers $65,000 in subsidies. When taxpayer funds are used to replace old, lead-lined, water pipes or renovate an old bridge or help people afflicted by opioids, the public gets a societal benefit and a good job. In sharp contrast, when taxpayers subsidize the film/TV industry, they get a highly paid job, and no ownership share in a profitable TV show or movie that may make millions for extremely wealthy producers and giant corporations.
In 2023, New York State commissioned one of the nation’s most comprehensive independent studies of film/TV subsidies. That study by the PFM Group found that from 2018 to 2022 New York State taxpayers lavished $3 billion in subsidies on Hollywood producers and – at the very most – got back less than a $1 billion in revenue from taxes on all ripple effects. (The study assumed that 100% of all film/TV productions in New York are due to the state subsidy and would not have been located in New York otherwise.) The PFM study is just the latest of a mountain of independent studies finding film/TV subsidies are a colossal waste of taxpayer money. We list eight of the most important below after the data table.
Despite this overwhelming evidence that film/TV subsidies are a staggering waste of taxpayer funds – including the PFM study paid for by the State – and knowing huge federal cuts are coming, the Governor and Legislature still added another $2.6 billion to New York’s film/TV subsidy in this year’s budget.
Reinvent Albany believes the Governor and Legislature are happy to waste enormous amounts of our tax dollars on an utterly debunked, trickle-down economics scheme because of the substantial political reward they get from the Motion Picture Association, its corporate members, its unions and tens of millions of dollars of top gun Albany lobbyists. More important than campaign contributions is the seductive, highly visible political narrative they amplify. Though completely misleading, that narrative is that the Governor and Legislature deserve credit for turning our tax dollars into productions that directly create high-paying jobs and stimulate the creation of other jobs and economic growth. The film/TV industry, its employees, lobbyists, and PR firms vigorously amplify this narrative and completely outgun independent researchers in academia and a handful of watchdog groups like Reinvent Albany.
Data Table:
Eight Major Studies Showing Film/TV Subsidies Waste Taxpayer Dollars
“Do Movie Production Incentives Generate Economic Development?”
Kennesaw State economist J.C. Bradbury in 2018: “The results indicate that neither [movie production incentives] in general, nor specific types or levels of tax credits, are associated with state economic performance.” The study, which surveyed analyses of programs across the country, found that the return on investment from state film/TV tax credits programs was negative, with the average return totaling just 27 cents per dollar spent.
“Lights, Camera, but No Action? Tax and Economic Development Lessons From State Motion Picture Incentive Programs”
USC Assistant Professor Michael Thom in 2016 found that film/TV tax credits had little to no effect on wages or job creation. “We looked at job growth, wage growth, states’ share of the motion picture industry, and the industry’s output in each state. On average, the only benefits were short-term wage gains, mostly to people who already work in the industry. Job growth was almost non-existent. Market share and industry output didn’t budge,” he said.
“Do State Corporate Tax Incentives Create Jobs? Quasi-experimental Evidence from the Entertainment Industry”
In a 2019 study, Thom sought to determine whether film/TV tax credits programs “have contributed to employment growth.” He concluded: “Results mostly show no statistically significant effects.”
“Do Tax Incentives Affect Business Location and Economic Development? Evidence From State Film Incentives”
In a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper in 2019, Patrick Button found that incentives do influence film locations but that “there is no meaningful effect on feature films, and employment, wages, and establishments in the film industry and in related industries.”
“Evaluation of the Maryland Film Production Activity Tax Credit”
A report by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services in 2015 found that Maryland’s film/TV tax credit program results in just 10 cents per dollar spent by the state and that “the state is actually worse off in the later years as there are fewer jobs compared to if there was no credit.”
“State Film Subsidies: Not Much Bang For Too Many Bucks”
The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities’ Robert Tannenwald found in 2010 that “State film subsidies are a wasteful, ineffective, and unfair instrument of economic development. While they appear to be a ‘quick fix’ that provides jobs and business to state residents with only a short lag, in reality they benefit mostly non-residents, especially well-paid non-resident film and TV professionals.”
“Motion picture production incentives and filming location decisions: a discrete choice approach”
Mark Owens and Adam Rennhoff in the Journal of Economic Geography in 2018: “We fail to find strong evidence that incentives create a more permanent movie industry in a state.”
“Policy Convergence, State Film-Production Incentives, and Employment: A Brief Case Study”
Richard Adkisson in the Journal of Economic Issues in 2014 found that “Ultimately, the evidence suggests that state efforts to attract film-production employment were largely ineffective.”