Former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has lashed out against reports that she personally benefited from a film tax credit program that was signed into law in 2008 while she was still governor.
The tax credits were aimed at luring more filmmakers to Alaska. After she resigned from the governorship, Palin filmed a miniseries reality show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” for the TLC cable TV channel. According to the Web site,
Palin responded to the allegations in a
“I can’t speak for the film tax credit programs in other states, but the program in Alaska has been effective,” the statement read in part. “The bipartisan legislation I signed into law in 2008 was borne out of elected lawmakers’ frustration with the fact that shows and films about Alaska were mostly filmed elsewhere. They wanted to incentivize production companies to film in Alaska instead of Canada, Washington state, or Maine. It worked, and as the legislation’s supporters will testify, the state’s economy enjoys the benefits of having this production money circulating right here at home. It was so successful that state lawmakers now want to renew the film production tax credits for another ten years. Keep in mind that we don’t have a state income tax, state sales tax, or state property tax in Alaska.”
Palin denied that the tax credit had been created to benefit her, and pointed out that it had been enacted long before she was offered a TV series.
Palin ran
