Question Time

Pointed questions about the situation surrounding the Iowa film tax credit scandal

The Tom Wheeler trial as well as the other trials that have taken place due to the Film Tax Credit scandal have answered a lot of questions but not all, and have raised many more. There are many pointed questions I can think of that I would like to ask the various people who had a part in creating the problem. (Asking these questions with the aid of a pointed stick would be especially satisfying.)

To Michael Blouin, the first head of the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) that Tom Wheeler served under (during the Vilsack administration) I would like to ask this:

Why did you hire Tom Wheeler in the first place while ignoring the 40 or so other applications for the job of Iowa Film Office manager? You didn't renew the contract of previous Film Office manager, Steve Schott, and instead appointed Tom Wheeler without any review of the many applications. Why?

While there may have been applications in the pile of people that were just as qualified as Wheeler, there likely were people with better experience, yet you skipped over these people. Tom Wheeler's experience in the film business consisted of working as a Production Assistant at Fox Animation in the Editorial Department. Did you even bother to find out what this job entailed?

A Production Assistant (PA) is the lowest rung on the ladder. These are the people who get the coffee and do the filing. Tom Wheeler never was on a motion picture or television set, never worked on locations, never dealt with film budgets, and never did many of the things that he would later be asked questions relating to when he went to work for you. He was having trouble with the job long before the film tax credits entered into things or before you moved on to another position elsewhere.

So, tell me again why you hired him? Was he someone's well-connected relative? Did one of your bosses tell you to hire him and to pay no attention to all the other applicants?

I really want to know. Please tell me.

To the members of the Iowa Legislature:

My question to you is not why did you pass the film tax credit bill? With the competition from other states for film projects and the dollars they brought, passing this bill made perfect sense. No, my question - questions, actually - to you are these: Why did you write a law that concerned taxpayer dollars with such vague language? Why did you not include funding or qualified staffing to adequately administer such a program? And finally, why are you now pretending that you had nothing to do with it?

Both major political parties in both houses passed it with a majority voting for it. Now, rather than showing any true leadership and fixing its flaws, you prefer to pretend that it doesn't exist and hope that it will simply go away.

To Michael Tramontina, the second director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development that Tom Wheeler served under:

Just where were you during this big mess? Sleeping at your desk? Were you really so clueless as to think the Film Office was just some fun little tourism thing and that the film tax credits were just some vague abstract thing that the legislature had talked about once? And why did you panic and resign once the issue of luxury cars came up? (Note to self: If ever visiting Beverly Hills with Mike Tramontina, don't go anywhere near a Rolls-Royce dealership. It could give him a heart attack!)

If Tom Wheeler was unable to handle the film tax credits himself, why did you let him? Why didn't you provide staffing for him? And if you didn't think he was the man for the job, why didn't you replace him? You know, division heads have that power. Why didn't you use it?

To Tom Wheeler, the now former manager of the Iowa Film Office:

While I know you suffered greatly through the ordeal of being fired from your job and through the time of your trial (they don't call them "trials" for nothing!), to say nothing of your time at the Iowa Film Office, there are still questions that need to be asked.

Why did you not seek more help from the film community during your term as manager when it became apparent that you were in over your head? I am not just asking about the time when the film tax credits became part of the job. I'm talking about your whole term as manager. Why did you mostly rely mostly upon the internet for information when you could have called people in the know directly who could have given you much more informed answers? There is a lot of information on the internet, true, but it is by no means complete nor necessarily accurate. Was it a puffed up sense of pride from having your first well paying job and a "I can do it all myself" attitude that made you approach your job this way?

And when the film tax credits came into being and your higher ups not only refused you the money and the proper staffing to administer it - in fact cut your Film Office budget - why didn't you just quit? It certainly would have appeared the honorable thing to do and in truth would have been. You could have possibly used your Film Office credentials to find another job in the film industry. Why did you try to be a hero when you were so obviously unprepared and unarmed for the situation?

To Tom Miller, Iowa Attorney General:

Why didn't you provide any legal assistance to the Iowa Film Office during the time of the film tax credits? Were you somehow expecting Tom Wheeler to know all about this subject or about the law in general? Why did you allow your office to be used as a tool to make Tom Wheeler a scapegoat and deflect attention from the other responsible parties who should have known better? Why did you make it your job to protect the powerful in state government at the expense of Iowa taxpayers?

To Chet Culver, former governor of Iowa:

Did you pay any attention at all to what was happening in the various departments under your care, or were you too busy keeping up with the doings of the Green Bay Packers? Why did you decide to make no effort at all to fix the film tax credit program problems once you awoke from your slumber? To use words you might understand, why did you forfeit the game when it was still only at the beginning of the first quarter after noticing that the score was not in your favor?

You could have frozen the film tax credit program for only a limited period of time - time enough to regroup, fire whoever needed to be fired, hire whoever needed to be hired, do whatever triage necessary to get things moving again, and then work with all the parties involved to fix the problems for good. You can walk and chew gum at the time, can't you? (Don't answer that!)

Instead, you froze everything for essentially forever with no attention given whatsoever to the possible consequences of your actions. Then you had the nerve to try to use it as an issue for your re-election campaign with your tough guy declaration about Iowans not being made into suckers.

Are you surprised you lost the election? I'm not.

To the great silent majority of the Iowa film community:

I'm talking about those who simply sat back while this whole thing was going on without raising a finger to fight back for a chance for a satisfying way to make a living. Why didn't you do anything? What was so important that you couldn't even take 5 minutes to write a legislator or send a "letter to the editor" expressing your thoughts? There were plenty of you around when times were good. You were lining up at the craft service tables, grabbing the pay checks, the glamor of the visiting celebrities, and enjoying the camaraderie of the set. But when all of this was threatened you decided to hang back and let others do the leg work. Why?

The few who did try to do something and did speak up need more than the occasional "Atta boy!" from you. The need more than a "thank you". They need more than an apology from all above. They need their lives and opportunities restored. Who is going to do it for them?

To all of those I've referred to above and to all of those reading this article:

The problem with the film tax credit scandal is that it just didn't affect the Iowa Film Office, it didn't just affect the well being of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and its effects did not stop at the Culver administration. It affected the whole state of Iowa and in its wake took down several other Film Offices and film incentive programs in other states. It put a black eye on Iowa in the eyes of the rest of not only the country but of the world and not just in the film community.

Film producers no longer trust the State of Iowa for anything. Who can blame them?
In the film community what happened as a result of the film tax credit scandal was the equivalent of the dropping of an atomic bomb. Iowa may as well contain deadly radiation as far as they are concerned. Nobody wants to film in Iowa any longer, at least professionally anyway. The fallout is going to last years, if not decades to come.