The District would have to front millions in taxpayer dollars -- including help financing a soundstage -- to outbid Maryland and Virginia and woo more Hollywood productions to the city, filmmakers and producers told a D.C. Council committee Wednesday, reported the Washington Examiner. The report continued:
“The city's reputation for having a painstaking permitting process, expensive accommodations for film crews, a dearth of production facilities and zero financial rebates has cost D.C. hundreds of millions of dollars in lost economic impact and millions in lost tax revenue, experts said. Most recently D.C. lost out to Baltimore when the producers of the television show "Veep" opted for Maryland, which has $7.5 million in its incentives fund. The producers of an Abraham Lincoln biopic skipped D.C. for Virginia, which has at least $2 million in available incentives.
“The District incentive fund currently has about $16,000 in it, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of Motion Picture and Television Development.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/2011/11/council-committee-weighs-solutions-dcs-film-problem#ixzz1dLt070x4washingtonexaminer.com/local/2011/11/council-committee-weighs-solutions-dcs-film-problem#ixzz1dLt070x4