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The fat lady has sung, but try telling that to Albany.
Gov. Hochul and the state legislature are still using taxpayer funds for a COVID-era giveaway for Broadway flops — and even quietly boosted the pot by $150 million in this year’s budget.
“This is another New York taxpayer subsidy for wealthy investors that should not exist,” said John Kaheny, executive director of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany.
“New York State taxpayers should not be underwriting Broadway shows. There’s no fiscal or economic argument for it,” he said.
The massive special-interest goodie — a k a the NYC Musical and Theater Production Tax Credit — was started during the pandemic to help keep even traditional theater hits such as “The Lion King” and “Wicked” afloat during the dark times.
The financial break, similar to a separate pandemic-era subsidy for film and TV productions in New York, started as a $100 million emergency program but has steadily increased in the years since — despite Broadway’s attendance and gross revenues recovering post-pandemic.
The program’s pot is jumping $150 million this fiscal year — up from $400 million to $550 million.
A theater show can receive tax credits of 25 percent of qualified expenditures — or up to $3 million per production — under the program.
Hundreds of millions of its dollars have supported short-run flops including “KPOP,” “Tammy Faye” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” as well as box-office behemoths such as “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Chicago The Musical,” “The Lion King,” “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Aladdin,” “Hadestown” and “Moulin Rouge!” according to nysfocus.com in March.
The site noted that some of the shows received millions of dollars after they had already closed.
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For example, the doomed 2024 musical “Tammy Faye” netted $2.5 million from the taxpayer-funded program earlier this year — although it had shuttered for months, after just 29 shows, nysfocus said.
“KPOP” only lasted two weeks, yet netted nearly $2 million from state coffers nearly a year later, the website said.
Kaehny said theater companies and the the unions representing workers flex their political muscles through campaign donations and organizing and are “being rewarded with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”
Hochul and state lawmakers are up for re-election this year.
The program is described on the Empire State Development Corp. website as a tax break “to jump start the entertainment industry and support tourism in New York City.
“The Program encourages Musical and Theatrical productions to begin performances sooner and come back stronger,” it says. “The Program will offset some of the additional costs associated with producing a show as New York’s economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic “
Hochul’s office defended the Broadway tax credit as still crucial to stabilize the theater district and and maintain and generate jobs for New Yorkers.
“In a brutally competitive market, the credit keeps major productions opening, rehearsing and hiring in New York State. Calling this a `reward’ ignores basic math,” a Hochul rep told said.
“If a show doesn’t come here, New Yorkers get zero jobs, zero hotel stays, zero restaurant checks, and zero tax revenue.”
The governor’s representative said the credit is “performance-based” and tied to “real spending and real employment” that helps sustain “tens of thousands of good paying jobs for stagehands, musicians, carpenters, costumers and front of house workers whose livelihoods depend on Broadway.
“The governor will always be proud to stand up for workers and the cultural and tourism economy that helps define New York,” the rep said.
Since the program’s inception, participating productions have generated more than 31,000 hires across New York, according to the governor’s office.
The Broadway League, the trade group which represents theater owners and operators and producers, had no comment.
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