The plot is thinning on Iowa film fiasco

This is a Letter to the Editor from Gene Hamilton and Jay Villwock that appeared in the Tuesday, June 15, 2010 issue of The Des Moines Register:


We appreciate the Register's continuing coverage of the Iowa film tax-credit situation, including the June 11 article, "New Charges Filed in Film Probe."

Remember the '70s TV ad where the old lady at the burger counter asks, "Where's the BEEF?" Well, Iowa's film industry is likely to ask that same question when it comes to the open-ended and nearly year-long investigation of Iowa's film tax-credit program.

Let's take an inventory of state agencies that joined in this probe parade: auditors, tax experts, prosecutors and criminal investigators - a Grand Inquisition that so far has yielded charges against only one film out of more than 100 film projects.

For this, the state has slammed the door on every Iowan involved in the film industry, not to mention out-of-state producers who had plans in place to create permanent studio facilities for multiple film projects to be made here in Iowa.

As the never-ending Iowa film tax-credit probe continues, and while the Iowa film community joins the legions of Iowa's unemployed, many creative Iowans must have that famous Peggy Lee song running through their heads: "Is That All There Is?"

- Jay Villwock and Gene L. Hamilton, Des Moines