I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The bill to repeal the state’s film credits is behind them, but film workers say by even introducing the idea costs not only them, but the entire state. Two more bills are targeting the credits and while they won’t repeal them, film workers say the effects would be close to the same.
Bruce Wetherbee, a member of Local 480, the film workers union, said as lawmakers debate film credits, Hollywood is debating where to send their projects. Talk of capping film credits makes film productions take a harder look at not only the bottom line but also New Mexico. Every year New Mexico starts talking about caps, the film industry in the state loses 25% of projects they would otherwise get, Wetherbee estimated.
“There are three productions I know of that were considering New Mexico,” said Wetherbee, who added that one of those choose to go elsewhere and another is considering it. Film workers like Wetherbee are now getting ready to challenge two bills in the Senate (one from Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, the other from Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell) that would cap the states film credit.
Wetherbee pointed out that because of the film credit the state now enjoys the largest group of trained film workers between New York and Los Angeles. The bill film workers support is Senate bill 47, a measure coming from Sen. Tim Keller, D-Albuquerque. It would give lawmakers the information they need to see the impact of the industry on the state, Wetherbee said. “We don’t have a problem with light being shed on the process.”
