I would like to have a series of substantive discussions on ...

[zipplewrath]

239. Strange you should declare this

Here in Florida, almost entirely run by the GOP, they are quite fond of TV/movie incentives. Some in the GOP don't like them, and some argue about how effective they've been. But they do hand them out. Not as much as they used to, but that was mostly because they weren't really seeing the payoff they've expected (and they may have had unreasonable expectations). And that is recurring theme. They've started to look more closely at sport stadium funding as well. There's been a lot of looking at all manner of incentives, especially these voluntary sales taxes used as part of tourist promotion efforts. It's beginning to be seen as somewhat of a racket where these taxes are collected, and poured back in to the benefit of the very companies from whom the taxes are collected (as a sales tax on their business).

The problem with these kinds of incentives is that when they work at all, it tends to be a case of companies spending on infrastructure that primarily benefits them, in many cases ONLY them. We had Universal down here get money from the city to build a pedestrian bridge between their hotel and their theme park. As I recall the money came from funding for improving pedestrian safety. This kind of infrastructure improvement isn't really what we need to be giving companies incentives to build. But this is almost assuredly the kind of tax incentive activity that would occur.