By Mike Thayer
I told you folks that the film tax credit program was a bad idea... What happens with big government? Big abuses, bad oversight.
Today, Gov. Chet Culver fired the director of Iowa's state program that offered millions of dollars in tax credits to moviemakers. Lacking oversight up to now, Culver (under the pressure of crap hitting the fan) asked the state auditor and attorney general to investigate abuses in the program.
In announcing the firing of Iowa Film Office manager Thomas Wheeler on this afternoon, Culver also accepted the resignation of Vince Lintz, deputy director of the Economic Development Department. Last week, Economic Development Department head Michael Tramontina - whose agency oversees the program - abruptly resigned.
Why on earth do we have a specialized state program that offers millions of dollars worth of breaks to film makers? This is another example of government creating its own problems. BIG government, liberal government. And AS IF a large sector of the state's economy is film making.
This state does not have the luxury of just dismissing the tax liability of certain businesses in this economy. It shouldn't happen in any economy for that matter. In the name of consistency where's the tax credit for grocery stores? Where's the tax credit for restaurants? Where's the tax credit for barber shops and hair salons?
Screw the tax credits, just let taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money in the first place. Government officials need to quit making promises they can't keep and manipulating budgets and taxpayer money in the process. We don't need government officials making up programs that are doomed to fail. We don't need well-intended but substance free programs and liberal pipe dreams, we need basic, functional, efficient government. What we have now ain't cutting it.
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