Nevada has no individual income tax and no corporate income tax but not much film production. Actor Nicolas Cage and a parade of film producers traveled to Carson City last week to argue that the state should subsidize the film industry to land more productions.
Cage:
“I have four scripts that could easily be shot in Nevada,” said Cage, who described himself as a Nevada resident, adding he’d like to wake up at home, go to work shooting a film and return home at the end of the day.
“I know investors around the world. I could give you names. Give me six months and I’ll give you a list of names of folks who would love to come to Nevada to make a movie,” he said.
That sounds nice of him, although he’s leaving out a key phrase: folks who would love to come to Nevada to make a movie if you make taxpayers to pay most of their costs. Putting it that way, that’s not very noble. Especially when you realize that the film industry is one of America’s most profitable industries.
I’m also guessing there’s lots of Nevadans who would be eager to create jobs and produce more if the state lowered their taxes to do so. Unlike the film industry, they might even stay in Nevada when other states offered a better deal.
The lone voice of opposition was Carole Vilardo of the Nevada Taxpayers Association:
Only Carole Vilardo, president of the Nevada Taxpayer Association, spoke against the bill, saying that taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. incentives in Louisiana have not brought a positive return to that state.
“I believe this bill is on the fast track to move out,” added Vilardo, noting the amount of incentives the bill offers would equal a 1 percent pay increase for state employees.
The Las Vegas Sun notes that Cage’s $5 million Las Vegas mansion was foreclosed upon in 2010.
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