A May 7 article by Katherine Yung of the Detroit Free Press on the Michigan Film Office stated that its tax-credit program to attract Hollywood created more than 3,000 temporary jobs.

The article read:  "The state's 42% movie tax credits have created more than 3,000 temporary jobs, helping people save their homes and cars."

Michael LaFaive, director of the Mackinac Center's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, said that may not be true and isn't supported by a study promoted by the Michigan Film Office.

According to a Michigan State University study of the film incentive program, there were the equivalent of 1,102 year-round jobs created by the film productions in 2008.

But LaFaive argues that the film incentives may not have "created" many jobs because the study didn't take into effect the amount of subsidy given to filmmakers - $48 million.

That $48 million was taken from Michigan businesses in taxes and then given to Hollywood filmmakers to help finance those "created jobs."

"There is an opportunity cost to this claim (of 3,000 jobs)," LaFaive said.

Other businesses could have possibly created as many if not more jobs if they didn't have $48 million sapped from their coffers in 2008 or another $68.7 million in 2009, LaFaive said.

"The Film Office should not assume that they would have created more jobs than if the state had left the private sector alone," LaFaive said.

LaFaive thinks the Detroit Free Press's figure of "3,000 temporary jobs" may have come from the Michigan Film Office's 2009 Annual Report. This summary states that there were 3,867 jobs "created" that year.

But did that include the $68.7 million given to Hollywood film companies in 2009?

Janet Lockwood, commissioner of the Michigan Film Office and the subject of the Detroit Free Press article, didn't reply to an e-mail requesting comment.

Public sector salaries have risen at a much faster rate than private sector pay for much of the 21^st century.

From 2001 to 2008, state government pay has increased 30 percent to $53,810 and local government jumped 26 percent to $42,327 while the private sector went up 17 percent to $43,833, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"It would be a good thing if money was just falling out of the sky," said Leon Drolet, director of the Michigan Taxpayers Association. "But it's not. Taxes are raised on the guy whose income only went up 17 percent for the public worker whose salary went up 30 percent. That's why it is a bad thing. It's not that wealth is being created here, wealth is being transferred."

State workers have faced cuts due to budget issues, said one spokesman.

There are 11,000 fewer state government positions from 2001 to 2008, according to Ray Holman, legislative liaison for the United Auto Workers Local 6000, which represents state workers.

State workers held a one-hour "We Need More Workers, Not Less" rally on Friday in Detroit.

"We don't have enough bodies to get the services out," said Holman. "Do I think state employees are overpaid? No. A lot of the jobs they do are complicated. We have psychologists who work in the prisons. We have accountants, We have scientists."

Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, has introduced a resolution that would withdraw Michigan from the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. Similar resolutions will be introduced by legislators in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined the governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa and Kansas in signing the accord, which calls for a 20 percent reduction of CO2 emissions below 2005 levels by 2020 and would require extensive economic pain with little to no environmental gain.

Significant CO2 emission reductions will lead to higher energy costs for both consumers and Michigan businesses, resulting in a loss of more jobs (particularly acute in a manufacturing state like Michigan) and less money in the pockets of Michigan residents. Any environmental impact would be too small to measure - Michigan only accounts for 0.54 percent of the worldwide CO2 emissions. 

As director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, I attended meetings with other state environmental directors when these regional accords were first discussed more than a decade ago. Environmental groups frustrated with lack of federal action on so-called global warming urged directors of state environmental agencies to convince their governors to participate in regional accords for the expressed purpose of pushing the U.S. Congress into passing cap-and-trade legislation. I did not commit to Michigan's participation in the accord, recognizing it would hurt the state's economy for no discernable environmental gain  

Much has changed since those early discussion regarding regional greenhouse gas reduction accords with the state loosing almost 1 million jobs and recent revelations that the science of global climate change has been compromised by political agendas. Michigan's participation in the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord was a bad idea when it was first discussed and is a worse idea now. It is time for Michigan to cut its losses and withdraw form the accord.