Inquirer editorial: Tax credits needed to lure filmmakers to Philly

Unimpressed pedestrians who recently walked through an East Market Street set where an episode of the FX comedy series

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

was being filmed weren't just being rude. They unwittingly served as a metaphor for their state, which has been trampling over a tax program designed to lure filmmakers to Pennsylvania.

For the first time in a decade, no major feature films are scheduled to be shot in or around the nation's fifth-largest city this year. That's because the tax credits Pennsylvania offers to production companies are paltry when compared with other states that are also trying to entice filmmakers.

Today's movie and television producers have made tax credits a crucial factor in deciding where to set up their cameras. But Pennsylvania's annual pot of $60 million in credits, which hasn't changed since 2007, has proven too small when competing with other picturesque locales, including some as close as Ohio.

Philadelphia did bring Sylvester Stallone back to the Art Museum steps last year for his Rocky sequel Creed, which used a half-dozen city shooting locations. But the five-county Greater Philadelphia Film Office reports that the flow of other major projects has dried up, which has sent local film workers elsewhere to find jobs.

It's those jobs, as well as the taxes they generate and spending on catering, logistical support, supplies, hospitality, and whatever else film crews may need during a shoot, that local film-industry boosters prize. The Milken Institute in Pittsburgh estimates that every $10 million spent on film production creates 107 jobs.

To keep the clapperboards snapping, Pennsylvania film-industry advocates are seeking an expansion of the annual tax credit to $100 million. Opponents of the credit typically argue against benefits for a particular industry. But the competition among states armed with tax credits for filmmaking on location is a fact of life.

Producers have plenty of alternatives to shooting in Pennsylvania. Even Always Sunny only films here once every couple of years. Most TV viewers outside Philadelphia can't tell the difference.

Film tax credits have been embraced by both Republican and Democratic governors. Former Gov. Tom Corbett at one point freed up millions in credits that had been earmarked by his predecessor Ed Rendell for 60 film, television, and commercial productions.

There's no box-office rush among legislators to embrace a film tax credit increase amid the scramble to fund a new state budget. But this belongs on the state's to-do list. "If we don't get an increase, there'll be nothing for Philadelphia," said Diane Heery, board chair of the Pennsylvania Film Industry Association. "We'll be done."