Miller looks for remedies, recovery in film tax credit probe

DES MOINES – Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said Tuesday a probe into the state's film industry tax credits program will focus on the state's potential liability and what remedies are needed to resolve problems or to recover taxpayer money improperly disbursed.

“We consider this a serious, complicated problem that has significant risk for the state of many kinds, Miller said one day after Gov. Chet Culver asked the attorney general, State Auditor David Vaudt and Mark Schuling, head of the state's Department of Revenue, to conduct a thorough review of lucrative tax credits provided for film projects produced in Iowa.

“The governor has given us a pretty clear mandate to take this wherever it leads. We're going to do that,” Miller told reporters. “Let's find out exactly and share with the public what those problems are and develop the appropriate remedies for that and learn from this experience and never let this sort of thing happen again.”

The attorney general said the initial probe will focus on civil issues related to alleged abuses, lax oversight and mismanagement of the film tax credits program. He said nothing has been ruled in or ruled out as investigators search for potential wrongdoing or impropriety.

The governor has frozen state funding for the program until all questions can be answered and “adequate oversight” has been resumed. He has accepted the resignation of Mike Tramontina as director of the state Department of Economic Development and his deputy director Vince Lintz. Tom Wheeler, the manager of the film office has been dismissed.

“There are plenty of warning signals to stop, to put a hold on it,” Miller said. “The governor was exactly right in suspending all the tax credits at this point. It would have I think been foolhardy to go ahead now or in interim before we've got everything figured out and ascertained.”

Culver administration officials are working to address allegations of lax oversight, potential abuses, administrative “irregularities,” and uncertainty over how much taxpayer money has been obligated for projects that contracted for the incentives. State officials say 22 film projects received about $32 million in tax credits and dozens more projects are in the pipeline given that Iowa's incentives currently are among the most financially attractive nationwide.

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