‘Duck Dynasty’ keeps tax break as Jindal cuts Louisiana colleges
ATLANTA — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential Republican presidential candidate, is trying to close a $1.6 billion budget hole without touching as much as $415,000 per episode in tax breaks that may be due to “Duck Dynasty.”
The A&E television reality show takes part in the nation’s most generous entertainment-tax credit program. Jindal is proposing no changes, arguing that reducing such breaks is tantamount to raising taxes. The state approves enough incentives each year to make up at least $200 million in proposed cuts that led Louisiana State University to say that it may plan for insolvency.
“You’re talking about between $200 million and $250 million a year that goes out the door to TV and film producers to come here and shoot their pictures, in a state where money is scarce,” said Jan Moller, director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which advocates policies that benefit low- and moderate-income people. “It’s irresponsible to let this part of the budget continue running amok at a time when they’re talking about closing college campuses.”
Jindal, who is expected to announce his presidential decision after the Louisiana Legislature adjourns in June, has positioned himself as an anti-tax, limited-government stalwart who has resisted tax increases as even other Republican governors reluctantly turned to them.
Louisiana’s tattered finances are a consequence of years of short-term patches to a structural gap between expenses and revenue and the recent sag in oil prices in the energyproducing state.
The budget crisis is hurting Jindal, said Scott McKay, who publishes the Hayride, a Republican blog, in Baton Rouge.
“If you are looking for a Republican nominee for 2016, he’s a bad choice,” McKay said. “Republicans are supposed to balance budgets.”
Jindal, 43, became the first Indian-American governor in 2008. His approval rating was 27 percent in March, according to a poll by Mississippi-based Triumph Campaigns.
Including his current proposed cuts, Jindal’s office says he has reduced state spending by $10 billion since 2008. Revenue still comes up short.
The $1.6 billion shortfall, about 18 percent of the general fund, led Moody’s Investors Service to put a negative rating on Louisiana debt in February, in a report that said scaling back tax credits could close some of the gap.
Jindal has proposed no changes to the film credit, which can pay more than a recipient owes if a company organizes itself such that it doesn’t owe Louisiana taxes.
Louisiana issued more than $1 billion in credits at an accelerating pace over the past 12 years. The state got 23 cents in revenue for every credit dollar it approved in 2013 and 2014, according to a March report.
Louisiana, which was the site of the most English-language film productions in the U.S. in 2013, pioneered movie credits, approving the program in 2002. All but 13 states now have such programs, according to Film Production Capital, a New Orleans firm that brokers credits.
The credit has created more than 33,000 jobs, two-thirds of them in tourism, according to an industry-commissioned survey released in April.
“It may sound weird that ‘Duck Dynasty’ can produce tourism, but that’s the kind of thing that sells,” said Will French, president of the Louisiana Film Entertainment Association.