The Michigan Senate and House of Representatives are currently considering bills that would allow the state to levy a tax on movie ticket sales.
These bills follow Gov. Granholm's proposal to eliminate a number of tax exemptions in the budget. If passed, these bills would help alleviate budget problems by saving the state $20 million.
While closing tax loopholes to balance the budget is a good idea, we can't help but feel the movie ticket tax is misplaced - that is, if it will result in a rise in movie ticket prices, as some people in the cinema business say it will.
Therefore, if this tax results in an increase in ticket prices, then it is more akin to a sales tax on consumers than an income tax on a business.
Plus, movie prices already are fairly high: $6.50 for students, $7.50 for adults and $5.50 for children at NCG Cinemas.
The tax would add only a small amount, about 30 cents, to each ticket.
However, the fact remains that the more tickets cost, the less people will attend.
Cable television, DVDs, video rentals, Netflix and downloaded movies from the Internet are already beginning to take the place of a night at the movie theater.
Movies on video are cheaper and don't require the viewer to leave the house, yet they simply aren't the same. The definition, size and richness of image color are of a lower quality in videos than in film, but videos are still successful in attracting viewers.
The state shouldn't make it less appealing to go see a movie by increasing the ticket price, especially when videos bought or rented on the Internet aren't taxed.
Increasing ticket prices encourages a culture that favors lower-quality home entertainment over higher-quality communal entertainment.
The money generated by the ticket tax should go toward grants for aspiring filmmakers (or some other method of bettering the quality of films) or bettering the quality of life for Michiganians in general.
As of now, we don't know where it will be allocated, if we did, our position might be different.
On the contrary, it seems the state is simply fishing for money to fill gaps in the budget, hoping the average citizen won't notice or care about the change.
The Legislature should try something else. There must be plenty of other sources for tax revenue - why not try those instead?
The movies should remain cheap enough for everyone to attend, so the Legislature shouldn't pass bills which make them prohibitively expensive.
Even a 30 cent increase is a step in the wrong direction.
