The hearing room was packed with union reps and small business owners. Some wore yellow stickers saying films equal jobs.
Deb Cutler, a Boston-based set decorator, said: “75 percent of my job is buying things and I buy everything in Massachusetts whether its furniture, hardware, antiques, artwork, window treatment lighting. It’s all bought here.”
Cutler added that if the incentives are taken away, she will lose her job and her vendors will suffer.
State Revenue Commissioner Amy Pitter testified the film tax break is a bad deal: “The cost of the film credits has a negative impact on the local economy.”
A state report says between 2006 and 2011 for every dollar Massachusetts gave away in film tax credits, it got 13 cents back.
(NOTE: WGBH benefits from the tax credit.)
