Why Does Texas Subsidize Movies?

If you make a movie in Texas, a broke state government will refund 15 percent of your production costs. (If you produce a magazine, a TV documentary, or a book, it won’t.)  Why the special treatment? Because 41 other states also offer subsidies. So we find ourselves in a self-defeating subsidy war among states who are nearly all broke.

Michael Kinsley suggests states call a halt to this welfare for movie producers. For one thing, the numbers used to justify it are fake. For another, nobody can afford it.