Good morning. We're covering the costly competition to attract TV and film shoots.
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State governments use our tax dollars to build roads, fund schools and provide health care. In 38 states, they also ship money off to a high-gloss private industry: Hollywood. And it's a lot of money. My colleague Christopher Kuo and I found that those states had given out more than $25 billion over the past two decades to subsidize the making of movies and television. The idea is to lure businesses to spend money, employ locals and stimulate the economy. The problem is, the programs are actually huge money losers for states. Studies show that these efforts typically return a quarter or even a dime on every dollar given to studios. Yet lawmakers are not slowing their spending. Quite the opposite. Hollywood is playing states off one another, and the competition has them sweetening their deals to lure productions, economists say. Under mounting pressure from New Jersey, New York recently expanded its film incentive program by 67 percent, to $700 million. Oklahoma went from $4 million to $30 million in just three years, in part to stay competitive with Texas. Then, Texas decided to spend nearly seven times that amount. "You could find almost an unlimited number of better uses for the same dollars," said Michael Thom, a tax expert at the University of Southern California. "Who on earth would say, 'Keep giving the money to Hollywood; my kid's school doesn't need new books'?" My colleagues and I wanted to understand why these programs persist. This morning, we published the third article in our series about the topic. Here's a quick look at what we found. Parties and cameosStates started supercharging their film incentive programs around the turn of the century. The idea is that when producers come to film in a state and spend money there, the government gives them back 20 to 30 percent of their costs as a thank-you for choosing that state. Lawmakers say the film and TV shoots employ electricians, hair stylists and many other crew members. That means jobs. Money trickles through local economies to hotels, diners and dry cleaners. In Georgia, for example, the film industry says the state gets $6 or $7 in economic value for every dollar invested
My colleague Jonathan Abrams went to a small town in Georgia and saw some of the effects there firsthand. A restaurant owner said that sales spiked every time a production came to town. A woman who owns a jewelry and leather goods store once sold the actress Anne Heche a $300 purse. But even when a community enjoys visits from famous people and an infusion of cash, the state is paying to subsidize those benefits. Of course, skeptical economic white papers can be no match for the allure of exclusive parties and the promise of a cameo in a blockbuster movie. Hollywood insiders lobby politicians with campaign donations and perks, which is another reason states keep expanding these programs. In Michigan, a big-name producer wined and dined lawmakers just as the state's film incentives were set to expire. If you squint at the right scene from "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," you'll spot a former Senate majority leader. And states need to offer a good deal, or else productions will simply film elsewhere. Experts say this arms race helps explain why more and more public funds flow to these programs. Remember the battle between Texas and Oklahoma? We document that in our latest piece. After Texas committed $200 million, Oklahoma began pushing to add many more millions to its own program. Dennis Quaid, a native Texan, has already plotted his home state's next move: He wants it to approve $1 billion in the next budget.
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Can President Biden change the U.S. position on the war in Gaza? No. Israel's goals to remove Hamas from power align with Biden's, and that means grievous harm to civilians. Despite his anger for Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden's "regard for Israel runs deep in his emotional and political DNA," Aaron David Miller writes for Times Opinion. Yes. After months of domestic and international outrage, Biden has threatened to put conditions on military aid to Israel. "That still seems too little too late to lots of people, even and especially in Biden's own government," Bloomberg's Andreas Kluth writes.
Witness the total solar eclipse, Ryan Milligan writes. It's not just something you see — it's something you experience. (Kathleen Lenihan and Maureen Lenihan Rust plan to travel around 1,300 miles to ensure that their mother sees the eclipse.) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is unqualified and unprepared to be president, Frank Bruni writes. Here are columns by Ross Douthat on happiness and the left and Lydia Polgreen on three Senate Democrats who are blocking the appointment of a Muslim judge. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today.
A traveling exhibit: See the work of women who made art in Japanese internment camps. Style: Are you a "spring" or a "winter"? Seasonal color analysis, big in the '80s, is making a comeback. TikTok: The internet says "Oatzempic" — a blend of oatmeal, water and lime juice — is a weight-loss hack. Experts say there's nothing magical about the mixture. Superstitious: The coach of UConn's men's basketball team wears the same socks and underwear to every game, so he travels with a washing machine. Vows: They kissed in the first 10 minutes. Lives Lived: Kate Coleman was a left-wing writer who documented Bay Area counterculture in the 1960s and '70s. She made enemies with exposés that were critical of the Black Panthers and the environmental movement. Coleman died at 81.
I'll be part of a new Q. and A. franchise, The Interview, that's starting in a few weeks. Before then I'm sharing some of my favorite past interviews. This one is with the great cartoonist and creativity educator Lynda Barry. I know that you've done work on pairing Ph.D. students with kindergartners so that the children can help the graduate students with problem-solving. What does that look like in practice? When I started teaching at the university [University of Wisconsin-Madison], I couldn't understand why all the grad students were so miserable. Then I thought, it is this laser focus on getting one particular thing done. But the kids could shift the students' perspectives in really helpful ways. And my students had to be on the floor with them working together. It's hard to explain, but it changes you. I'll bet there's a not insignificant number of people in the world — in my head, I picture some no-nonsense businessman — who think that playing around on the floor is not something for adults to be doing. Is there any way to persuade those people of the value of trying to access that childlike mind-set? Why try? Because those people run the world. The reason they run the world is because of the way they were built. But it's not going to help that person. Those guys, they don't have a need. So there's not a lot we can do, and that's the hardest thing to accept. You used the phrase "the way they were built." When it comes to playfulness, can a person change how he or she is built? Whatever man we're imagining, if you hand them their 8-month-old grandson, that man will dance, sing, tell stories. We still all can communicate that way. There's amnesia about the deepness of that interchange and amnesia about how when you're making a story or making a painting it's that same sort of interchange, and having that is what you're born to do. Read more of the interview here.
The Rabbit Hole: See inside a new children's literature museum, where the world of picture books comes to life. Audiobook: A high-profile adaptation of George Orwell's "1984" for Audible, read by Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo and others, plays with the original text. Our editors' picks: "The Hammer," about the current landscape of the American labor movement, and six other books. Times best sellers: Stephen Breyer, the former Supreme Court justice, shares some of his philosophies in "Reading the Constitution," which enters the hardcover nonfiction list.
Fall in love with the pianist and vocalist Shirley Horn. Make the perfect friendship bracelet. Move your home office outside.
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A spring-cleaning of your kitchen might mean clearing out condiments and jars from your fridge. In this week's Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Genevieve Ko offers recipes to help you declutter. Add a spicy condiment to chicken or tahini to a spinach-and-cilantro soup.
Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was logophile. Can you put eight historical events — including the first airplane, the peace sign and "tulip mania" — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com.
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