Supporting Both Iowa's Past and Future

A Senate bill that would give the Field of Dreams Baseball Park up to $16 million in sales tax rebates is working its way through the legislature.

Meanwhile, a House bill relating to the Department of Cultural Affairs, which includes the Iowa Film Office but has its budget cut down to zero, has passed over to the Senate. One bill represents trading on Iowa's past and the other contains provisions for a state office that could help provide for Iowa's future.

Both the Field of Dreams Baseball Park and the Iowa Film Office would be generally good for the state, but specifically one would benefit only a region of the state, while the other could create opportunities throughout Iowa.

There is a great deal of difference between $16 million and zero. At the Governor's proposed yearly budget of $400,000, the Iowa Film Office could run for 40 years on the amount that this one baseball park could receive.

Without the movie "Field of Dreams", this Dyersville attraction would not exist. If it weren't for the work of the Iowa Film Office, it is very unlikely that this motion picture would have filmed here in Iowa.

In the movie, from which the baseball park takes its name, the lead character, portrayed by Kevin Costner, has to take a leap of faith. He has to believe that "if you build it, they will come." Iowa for many years has traded in on the reputation of this now 23 year old film with its "Fields of Opportunity" slogan, but for this saying to mean anything Iowa must back it up with more than words. Backing it up is more than simply stating that an Iowa Film Office is going to be created within the Department of Cultural Affairs. Resources must be provided to back it up. Nothing has ever run on zero and funding at half or quarter levels brings corresponding results.

Iowa is at a historic crossroads. It has the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of its old Film Office and to grow a new one that runs both stronger and smarter.
It has the opportunity to not only honor its past, through the Field of Dreams Site, but to also create opportunities for for its future, through the work of a fully funded and staffed Iowa Film Office.

"Field of Dreams" is hardly the only movie that can be made in Iowa and live on in the hearts and minds of world's movie audiences. Iowa can be the site of more dreams than just "Field of Dreams."

Please show regard for our future by fully supporting a new Iowa Film Office.