Author: Andrew McNeill

Legislative sessions are dominated by interest groups seeking money or trying to tilt the playing field to their financial benefit. The most shameless in the 2025 session was the film industry.

The industry secured the coveted Senate Bill 1 (SB1) designation, sponsored by Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville. Of all the challenges facing the state, the Senate’s symbolic priority was creating a new state agency “to solidify Kentucky as a destination for film production.” Not disaster recovery or more housing but putting out a welcome mat for Hollywood.

The bill was unveiled on the last day Senate bills could be introduced, nearly half-way through the 30-day session. Important to note, the incentive program the new office will oversee already exists. It was buried deep in a 138-page omnibus bill that was revealed and passed by the legislature in the closing hours of the 2021 session. Rank-and-file legislators were asked to vote for the film program without knowing much, if anything, about it. 

Misdee Wrigley-Miller, the CEO of Lexington-based  Wrigley Media, joined the press conference announcing SB1. In prepared remarks, Wrigley-Miller said she took a “leap of faith” when she launched a Kentucky-based film studio. She said she was “inspired by that old saying ‘build it and they will come.’”

Maybe it was an admirable entrepreneurial urge that motivated her to transform an old multiplex movie theater into sound stages and production offices. But people deserve to know more of the story so they can draw their own conclusions.

Wrigley-Miller is the great-granddaughter of the chewing gum industrialist William Wrigley Jr. Her family once owned the Chicago Cubs (hence the name Wrigley Field). She and her husband operate a Fayette County horse farm and, a few years ago, they bought a polo club in Florida for $2.6 million. 

To be clear, I’m a free-market guy and have no issue with someone benefiting from their forefather’s ingenuity and hard work. But let’s be honest. Is it really a “leap of faith” when someone knows there’s a safety-net woven from generational wealth waiting below to catch them?

Film subsidies aren’t like other economic development incentives. To qualify for traditional incentives, companies open or expand facilities, upgrade machinery and technology, create and retain a certain number of jobs and then receive a credit against the corporate taxes they owe. I’m not a huge fan of traditional incentives but at least they reward companies that invest fixed capital and plan to stay in Kentucky for the long-term. 

Film subsidies are awarded for individual projects – a movie or television series. Those projects are transient and don’t generate much in the way of state tax liabilities. Therefore, the incentives are in the form of cash paid to the production companies based on a project’s budget. 

For example, in 2023 GenX icon Ethan Hawke filmed a movie in Kentucky.  It debuted at the haughty Telluride Film Festival before getting a limited release in New York and Los Angeles. 

Over its short theatrical run, the film grossed $563,591 at the box office. However, based on its $9 million budget, the film qualified for a $2.9 million subsidy. You read that right. The payment from our state treasury for Ethan Hawke’s movie was five times bigger than its ticket sales! 

I submit that the film industry’s real mantra is “subsidize us and we will come.” Legislators like Phillip Wheeler are not only okay with this but want more of it. 

More of what? Well, like these projects that have qualified for subsidies in the past: “I Married a Serial Killer,” “Dance with Death,” “Stripped to Kill,” “Venus Invasion,” “Vengeful Caregiver,” “Mommy’s Deadly Secret” and “Killers on Campus.”  This is the kind of garbage demanding to get paid to film in our state.

Here’s a prediction: even with the generous handouts made possible by the General Assembly, don’t expect a serious filmmaker like Steven Spielberg to bring his projects to Kentucky anytime soon. 

Andrew McNeill is the President and Senior Policy Fellow at the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education (KYFREE). He served as the Deputy State Budget and Policy Director in Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration. His email address is amcneill@kyfree.org.