ThinkTech Hawaii: Fevella’s Film Feud (Talking Tax)

Pushing Film Credit Changes with Teamsters. The hosts for this show are Jay Fidell and Tom Yamachika.

On Wednesday, May 31st, there was a press conference held at the State Capitol regarding the Hawai’i movie and TV production tax credit. Two of the main speakers were Kevin Holu of Hawai’i Teamsters Local 996 and Senator Kurt Fevella (R, District 20).

Senator Fevella launched into a tirade about how the State is now administering the credit. ‘This is Hawai’i,’ he said. ‘People are standing in line to film here but when you have one person making the decisions – that’s the discouragement, that’s the guy’s discouraging people to come here.’ It seems the Senator was misinformed. Witness ‘Chief of War’ being produced by Jason Momoa.

Senator also had some choice words for mainland companies managing studios and productions in Hawai’i. ‘You’re darn right I have a problem [with them],’ he said. ‘Everything should be local. It’s our land, it’s our place, it’s our people.’ But then there is the U.S. Constitution and its Commerce Clause.