Should Brooklyn Bands Start Getting Tax Breaks?

For over a decade, New York has paid film production companies to locate shoots in the state. The film tax credit, now capped at $420 million annually, is essentially a bid against similar offers from 36 rival states that have shown themselves willing to pay up in exchange for a taste of Hollywood magic. Now musicians want the same star treatment from New York, with the local music industry centered in Manhattan and Brooklyn selling the idea of state tax credits to lawmakers in Albany. The New York State Assembly has already added $25 million to the state budget this year to pay for refundable tax credits for musicians, although the provision needs support from State Senate lawmakers and the governor.

Justin Kalifowitz, chief executive of Downtown Music Publishing, sees the success of the state's film credit as a model for musicians. Adding urgency, he says, is that such places as Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana have begun offering music tax credits of their own—an arms race that would be good for the music industry. But some states are growing weary of trying to outdo one another to buddy up to Hollywood and may not be willing to add a second industry to the list. Massachusetts’s governor wants to end that state’s credit, and a proposed bill in Louisiana—which in 1992 became the first state to offer one—would pare its program. Connecticut, Arizona, and Iowa have all walked back credits in recent years.