Would you like it if state government offered to pay 15 percent to 20 percent of your household bills or perhaps 15 percent or 20 percent of the costs of operating your business?
Well, that is what one bill moving through the Legislature would do. The measure would provide a tax credit equal to 15 percent of the costs incurred in a county with a population of over 700,000, or 20 percent of the costs incurred in a county with a population of 700,000 or less, for a qualified production of a motion picture or television production.
The idea is being proposed because proponents point out that other states are offering such incentives in order to attract movie and television productions to their states. They go on to argue that if Hawaii doesn’t hand out incentives, it will lose these job-creating ventures to other states. After all, they point out, movie and television productions create jobs for Hawaii