By Neal Peirce For Release Sunday, July 25th, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
Is the film industry snookering America’s taxpayers?
We’re accustomed to state governments putting up big capital for footloose auto factories, biotech firms, even airplane assembly plants.
But what are we to make of tax credits and other state-financed breaks to such big-time production companies as Disney, Time Warner and Sony and their film-making subcontractors? With most state budgets now mired in deep red ink, does this make any sense?
Louisiana, which had been attracting some filmmaking for decades, decided in 2002 to ramp up modest incentives in a really serious way, passing a bundle of subsidies for film production in the state.
The strategy paid off quickly, attracting such production firms as Disney and such stars as Dustin Hoffman.
Louisiana’s move did more. It triggered, as researcher William Luther reported for the Tax Foundation, “an explosion of movie production credits nationwide” as dozens of states tried by one way or another to outbid Louisiana. By 2009, 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were into the game.
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By Eugenie Birch For Release Sunday, July 25, 2010
Citiwire.net
ISTANBUL — This fabled world city has a remarkable story to tell. Recently the European Union awarded it the highly competitive “European City of Culture 2010,” title, the first for a non-EU member. More important, Istanbul is becoming a viable model for the 21st century megacity — places of 10 million or more inhabitants, likely by 2050 to house 20 percent of the world’s urban population.
With its 11 million people, Istanbul is the fifth most populous city in the world, following Shanghai, Mumbai, Karachi and Delhi. It’s emblematic of megacities, now largely concentrated in Asia. But it’s no newcomer: it’s been occupied for 8,000 continuous years. It sits in an earthquake zone, it has flood-prone geography and municipal boundaries that span Europe and Asia; the internationally-governed, heavily-trafficked Bosporus River divides its territory.
Huge (5,400 square kilometers) and dense (2,400 people per square kilometer) Istanbul for the last five years has absorbed about 250,000 rural migrants and new babies annually. A stream of fresh population has flowed continuously for the past 50 years at an annual growth rate of 4.5 percent. (For comparison, figures for the largest city in the continental US, Jacksonville, are 2,292 square kilometers and 354 people/square kilometer and 5% [annual growth rate]).
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