Gov. Newsom Gifts Tax Breaks to La La Land, Betting on the Losers

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he is even more giving taxpayer-funded tax breaks to Hollywood.

350 company headquarters have left California for good, and Gavin Newsom just smugly watched them go.

But Newsom proposes expansion of the state’s film and TV tax credit program. 

Hail Caesar!

Newsom made the announcement Sunday:

Governor Gavin Newsom today announced a proposal to expand California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program to $750 million annually, a massive increase from the current $330 million annual allocation. This ambitious expansion would position California as the top state for capped film incentive programs, surpassing other states like New York.

So, Gov. Newsom is gifting La La Land, his reliable political support group, another $420 million, totaling $750 million, for making crappy movies that no one wants to watch.

California’s Les Misérables are struggling to make ends meet, forced to choose expensive gas or expensive groceries – this is Gavin Newsom’s California. 

Newsom is gifting a billion dollar industry more tax breaks rather than California’s struggling small businesses. Instead Newsom told small business owners, “You’ll get nothing and like it.”

Newsom said:

Between 2020 and 2024, data shows California lost production spending due to limited tax credit funding and increased competition in other states and countries, directly impacting state jobs and local economies​​.

In recent years, projects that were unable to secure California’s tax credits and moved to other locations as a result contributed to significant economic losses, with an estimated 71% of rejected projects subsequently filming out-of-state.

They just need more taxpayer money, right?! Isn’t it interesting that Gov. Newsom hasn’t propped up any other struggling industries? Instead, he is trying to run the oil and gas industry out of the state.

There was no discussion about why California lost production, when anyone who cut the cord to live stream, or only watches cable TV knows – Hollywood is morally and socially bankrupt.

“We wanted to reconcile the stress that’s been building up here for, frankly, the better part of a decade,” The Most Dangerous Man in America said, referring to the competition from other places, the coronavirus pandemic and the crippling writers and actors strikes of 2023, the OC Register reported. “I don’t know how they can continue to afford that program (in New York), and we’ll see” how it goes in Georgia.”

Even more interesting is just how destitute Hollywood is:

According to FilmLA, the film office for the city and county of Los Angeles as well as other local jurisdictions, the five-year average for local feature film production showed a decline of 48%.

“Only a few months ago, the industry hoped we’d see an overall on-paper gain in the third quarter, due to the strike effect,” Paul Audley, FilmLA president, said after the report was released. “Instead, we saw a pullback and loss of forward momentum, heading into the fall season that will make or break the year.”

The Wolf of Wall Street is giving $420 million in tax breaks to an industry which showed a decline of 48% over five years… he is betting on the losers.

Newsom’s California is looking more like The Fifth Estate with more deceptions and corruption of power.

Remember, California voters say:

Six in ten Californians say the state is going in the wrong direction.

Californians also disapprove of the state legislature and the legislators representing their own assembly and senate districts, with a majority of adults and likely voters disapproving and about four in ten each approving.

Close to seven in ten (68%) expect bad economic times in the next year.

Forty-two percent of Californians say that the state’s budget situation is a “big problem.”

Majorities of adults (54%) and likely voters (52%) disapprove of the way Gavin Newsom is handling his job as governor. The share of both adults and likely voters disapproving of the governor has steadily increased since last June (43% disapprove among each) and first reached 50 percent this February.

More than a third of Californians (36%) say their personal financial situation is worse off than it was a year ago.

A majority of Californians say the cost of housing places at least a little financial strain on them and their families (29% a lot, 24% a little). This sense of strain is highest among residents in Los Angeles (56%) and lowest in the San Francisco Bay Area (49%). Among demographic groups, residents earning less than $40,000 (74%) and those without at least some college education (67%), Latinos (64%), and 18- to 34-year-olds (64%) are the most likely to report at least some financial strain. Renters (72%) are almost twice as likely than homeowners (37%) to say this.

Where are those tax breaks?

California is clearly teetering on The Edge of Democracy.