Trade secrets or hiding payrollers?
Tuesday, Jul 26, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
Illinois officials say they won’t detail expenditures the TV show “Chicago Fire” made to qualify for nearly $16 million in tax breaks last year.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the move is a departure from last year, when the state publicly released the names and amounts show producers spent on actors, extras, crew and businesses that worked on the series’ pilot episode.
State officials say show owner NBCUniversal Media argued that Illinois was disclosing proprietary information that would yield competitive harm. The state agreed that the information was exempt from release under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.
* Sun-Times…
That’s a departure from last year, when the state released the names and amounts the producers of “Chicago Fire” spent on actors, extras, crew and businesses that worked on the series’ pilot episode in 2012. Those records detailed expenditures including $215,161 to Cinespace Chicago Film Studios, $6,200 to the Chicago Fire Department for “fire equipment” and $272 to Nordstrom for two pairs of shoes for the character Kelly Severide, played by actor Taylor Kinney.
But NBCUniversal Media, which owns the show, has now convinced Rauner administration lawyers that releasing such information about episodes since then would violate “trade secrets,” according to a July 8 letter attorney Patrick M. Callahan sent to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan explaining the state’s refusal to provide the information to the Chicago Sun-Times. […]
Madigan’s staff is reviewing the Sun-Times’ appeal of the Rauner administration’s decision.
Without seeing the records, it’s impossible for the public to know, for instance, whether politically connected people are benefiting from the series’ taxpayer-supported spending. Expenditures on the pilot episode of “Chicago Fire,” for example, included $57,810 paid to William T. Hogan III, son of the former Teamsters Local 714 boss, to work as a “driver captain/trans coord.”
- Gruntled University Employee - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 2:34 pm:
Nothing to see here, move along…
- A guy - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 2:38 pm:
Hey, Billy get tings dun.
- illini - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 2:49 pm:
Transparency and Sunshine - always necessary, but not always easy to come by!
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 2:50 pm:
Did they get the idea from the Rauner campaign?
- Ghost - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 3:06 pm:
they could telease names of beneficiaries….. BUT i wonder id this info about production costs isnt alteady out there in financial disclosures since the company is publicly traded…. Have read a few articles about companies closely guarding their production costs and ad revenues so thai does not seem out of line
- walker - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 3:14 pm:
Sounds reasonable.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 3:36 pm:
=Hey, Billy get tings dun.=
Gosh, that is really “funny”, you really amuse me. I guess fraud is comedy to you.
- Adam Smith - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 3:39 pm:
Ok, folks, let’s all think this through a little.
Disclose all expenditures by hospitals that get money from Medicaid? Publicly list the salaries and every dime spent by social service agencies so I can know if any politically connected people are being employed?
Can I demand that every private business that utilizes any tax break or credit from the state open their entire finances to the general public?
Oh, and also, if you take advantage of any personal tax credits shouldn’t you have to disclose all your personal finances to ensure “transparency?”
Gimme a break.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 3:53 pm:
–Can I demand that every private business that utilizes any tax break or credit from the state open their entire finances to the general public?–
Why not. Food stamp recipients have to to get a measly 194 a month maximum. If the state is giving away 10’s of millions, I think they should.
Besides you get why we have sunshine/FOIA laws right? Hey why not if they have nothing to hide.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 4:13 pm:
At a minimum this information should be available to and Inspector General and/or the Attorney General.Entities that contract with the State have to go through a conflicts of interest check. Skulduggery abounds.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 4:21 pm:
Again DCEO is changing for the worse. They are less transparent, more deceptive and doing more business in the dark. Seeing that a teamster was paid a lot makes me wonder if that’s where certain ILRB moneys are being funneled.
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 4:45 pm:
My favorite part is the State allows the production companies to resell the tax credits to the highest bidders and the State brokers the exchange on top of it.
- Henry Francis - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 5:27 pm:
And keep in mind this is the state run DCEO. Just think how transparent Bruce and Jimmy’s private DCEO is going to be.
- anonanon - Tuesday, Jul 26, 16 @ 5:31 pm:
The argument could be made that some of the information is confidential in nature and could cause competitive and financial harm to the company if released. That being said, I don’t believe all of the information can be considered confidential in nature. The company should have no expectation of privacy in relation to demonstrating they met the criteria for receiving tax credits. There are certain requirements that must be met to receive the credits and a company doing business in Illinois that receives them should be forced to show they meet those requirements. There is no way to have accountability if some of the information is not released.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jul 27, 16 @ 5:28 am:
More Raunerism which smells bad, like 10 day old fish left out in 90degree weather.
Hasn’t Rauner now broken another promise regarding transparency?