Hollywood is the Democratic base

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), alongside Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is fighting to more than double California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program from $330 million to $750 million. The tax credit is designed to coax multibillion-dollar Hollywood studios to make their movies in California (specifically, Los Angeles) with the promise that they don’t need to spend as much on taxes as, well, every other Californian does on everything else.

To summarize: Hollywood studios that make movies in California pay the second least amount of taxes (behind Georgia) compared to making movies in other states, and they are going to have to pay even less, while Californians shoulder the fifth-highest tax burden of any state. Tax burdens for thee, tax breaks for Hollywood elites.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. When COVID-19 hit, Newsom clamped down on businesses up and down the state but cut out special lockdown exemptions for Hollywood. While businesses closed and people were prevented from holding funerals for their loved ones, Newsom made sure Hollywood film projects could have their indoor dining and function with few restrictions. After all, television shows and movies are “critical infrastructure” in Newsom’s California, but schools aren’t. (Well, at least schools that don’t teach Newsom’s children, who were allowed to return to classes before the children of California’s peasants).

What else would you expect from a man who comes from a humble, hard-working background, who was raised by a judge and an oil company attorney, and who started a winery with the help of his billionaire friend? Newsom may not know what it’s like living paycheck to overly-taxed paycheck or running a business with slim margins, but he knows the problems that rich Hollywood studio executives face, like how can they become richer if California doesn’t give them expanded refundable state tax credits?

Fortunately for them, Newsom is far more interested in solving that problem than easing the tax burden on the rest of the state’s residents. Or cleaning up the streets and combatting homelessness. Or putting criminals in jail. Or fixing the state’s failing schools. Or fixing the state’s water storage and energy infrastructure instead of listening to rabid environmentalists. Or … well, you get the idea.

Such is the level of problem-solving you get from a lifelong elite who is leading the state political party that prides itself on celebrity access. When Newsom faced a recall for California’s dismal economic conditions for normal families and for his incoherent COVID-19 response, he rolled out celebrities to tell the peasants that he was so great. Yes, you can’t afford a house and pay way too much in taxes while Hollywood celebrities pay so little, but musician John Legend likes Newsom, so cast your vote accordingly.

Maybe Newsom doesn’t see how bad it looks to deliver special tax favors to his Hollywood friends while siphoning money from hard-working Californians, or maybe he is just trying to cement his spot as the villain in the next James Bond film. One thing is certain, though. Hollywood is still the Democratic voting base, but it isn’t part of the state’s tax base.