Tax credits for movies aren’t ‘cut’

Lawmakers aren’t ready to shoot the final scene for New York’s film tax credits.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (DManhattan) on Thursday rebutted Gov. Cuomo’s claim that the Legislature would be OK with letting the popular incentives lapse.

“This tax credit has a documented value year after year after year,” Krueger said during an interview with WNYC radio’s Brian Lehrer. “It’s working, and the Senate is certainly not proposing ending this credit.”

“The only one who suggested ending it was the governor,” she added.

Cuomo, asked about the credit earlier in the week, said that he could see Senate Dems discontinuing the incentives — based on their posturing around the scuttled deal to bring online retail giant Amazon to Queens.

“The Senate’s position was very clear on Amazon, ‘We are against tax incentives to bring business to New York.’ That’s why Amazon is gone,” he said Tuesday. “I can see them being wholly consistent, saying, ‘and that’s why we’re against the film tax credit’ because it’s the exact same point.”

Each year, the Empire State spends $420 million offsetting costs for film and television productions.

There are some who would like to see the incentives cut. Republican Sen. Bob Antonacci, whose district covers the suburbs surrounding Syracuse, introduced a bill Thursday that would phase out the program.

“The overwhelming majority of project recipients would have filmed in New York without this credit,” a memo attached to the bill states. “In addition, it disproportionately favors New York City. This legislation offers the alternative of a phase out of this tax credit.”

The current program runs through 2022, and Senate Democrats added language in support of extending the incentives into the future in their one-house budget proposal earlier this month.