> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.newmexicomadness.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Deb Haaland’s Hollywood Bailout: Opening State Blockbuster Offices While New Mexico Pays the Tab - URL: https://www.newmexicomadness.com/deb-haaland-hollywood-bailout-regional-film-offices/ - Published: 2026-10-27T14:16:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-27T14:16:00.000Z - Author: Duke of New Mexico - Tags: State If Deb Haaland were running for governor in 2004, she would probably promise to rescue rural New Mexico by opening a state-funded Blockbuster Video in every county seat. Instead, it is 2026, and Haaland’s big rural economic development pitch is to open permanent, taxpayer-funded "regional film offices" in every corner of New Mexico. On Friday, Haaland rolled out a joint endorsement from Teamsters Local 492 and Teamsters Local 399—the "Hollywood Teamsters" union headquartered at 4747 Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood, California. In exchange for the nod from union bosses in the 818 area code, Haaland pledged to expand Michelle Lujan Grisham’s film handouts, open regional field offices for the New Mexico Film Office across the state, and push film-industry training into K-12 public schools. There is just one problem with building a permanent state bureaucracy around Hollywood: the New Mexico movie boom already collapsed, and working New Mexicans are the ones stuck paying the bill. ### A 62% Crash and a $73 Million Albuquerque White Elephant Read Haaland’s *Affordable New Mexico* plan and you would think Hollywood studios are fighting over parking spaces in Tucumcari and Reserve. Look at the New Mexico Film Office’s own numbers and a very different picture emerges. Direct movie and television spending in New Mexico has crashed 62 percent from its peak—plunging from $855.4 million across 112 projects in fiscal year 2022 down to $323 million in fiscal year 2025 and $327 million this past year. Just last week, the *Albuquerque Journal* checked in with the state Film Office and discovered there are currently only six projects filming in the entire state of New Mexico: three movies, one television series, one digital project, and one video game. In August, local union leaders told KOB 4 they had seen "maybe five total productions under contract through August—not even one a month," forcing roughly 2,000 New Mexico crew members to scramble for side jobs just to pay their mortgages. Even the state Film Office director recently admitted that production has shrunk 40 to 50 percent nationwide and many New Mexico film workers haven’t set foot on a stage in two years. Yet Santa Fe politicians keep pouring taxpayer concrete for an industry in retreat. As New Mexico Madness previously documented, the state committed $73 million to build an Albuquerque Rail Yards film school—the Media Arts Collective—that mostly churned out basic safety certificates while rural clinics, plumbing outfits, and electrical trades starve for workers. Now Haaland wants to double down on that metro white elephant by renting storefronts for salaried state film bureaucrats in rural counties. ### Why Hollywood Isn’t Coming Back: Eastern Europe and AI This is not the movie business of 20 years ago. It is a scattered, shrinking industry being hollowed out from two directions at once: foreign offshoring and artificial intelligence. According to April 2026 industry tracking reported by the *Los Angeles Times*, 45 percent of all U.S. films and scripted television series were shot outside the United States last year—up from 33 percent in 2022—while U.S. production spending dropped another 20 percent. Studios are bypassing American states entirely for the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe, where production in places like Hungary has surged 78 percent because foreign labor costs a fraction of American union rates and carries zero healthcare or pension mandates. At the same time, rapid advances in artificial intelligence are permanently eliminating the exact jobs New Mexico politicians promised would last forever—from virtual sets and automated visual effects to synthetic background actors, digital voice cloning, and AI editing suites. And who controls the few union movie jobs left in New Mexico? Not even New Mexicans. In August 2022, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters stripped New Mexico’s Local 492 of its motion picture jurisdiction and handed control of New Mexico film sets directly to North Hollywood’s Local 399\. When Haaland brags about her Teamsters endorsement and her support for the federal PRO Act—which uses California-style rules to wipe out independent contractors and freelance truckers—she isn’t protecting rural New Mexico entrepreneurs. She is protecting union dues flowing back to Los Angeles. ### You Pay Income Tax and GRT—Netflix Gets a Cash Check The real insult inside Haaland’s Hollywood deal is that she calls "affordability" the centerpiece of her campaign. Across New Mexico, 30 of 33 counties are poorer than the national average, and more than 90,000 children live in poverty. Even at the bottom of the current film slump, 83 percent of New Mexico’s production spending stays locked inside the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro corridor, leaving the other 31 counties to fight over crumbs. Yet every time a family or small business in Chaves, Socorro, Cibola, or McKinley County hires a plumber, visits a clinic, or buys supplies, they get hammered by New Mexico’s Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) and state personal income tax. Out-of-state movie studios don’t play by those rules. Under New Mexico’s film production tax credit, studios receive a 25 to 40 percent *refundable* rebate—including 15 percent on the wages of non-resident crew members flown in from California. "Refundable" is Santa Fe polite-speak for welfare: even when a billion-dollar studio owes zero dollars in New Mexico income tax, the state Treasury cuts them a direct cash check out of the general fund. New Mexico’s nonpartisan Legislative Finance Committee has repeatedly warned that film subsidies cost more than twice as much per job as other economic development programs and deliver a negative return on investment, returning as little as 14 to 43 cents in tax revenue for every dollar handed to Hollywood. Despite that money-losing ROI, the state’s annual film payout cap is scheduled to climb to $150 million next year and $160 million by 2028—with uncapped studio-partner deals projected to push the true taxpayer tab past $270 million a year. ### The Bottom Line Deb Haaland says New Mexico cannot afford Republican Gregg Hull’s *Four Steps to Zero* plan to phase out the state personal income tax—a plan that would immediately let working individuals keep taxes on their first $25,000 of income ($50,000 for married couples) and reward every homegrown small business in the state. Instead, Haaland wants working families in 30 poverty-stricken counties to keep paying full state income tax and GRT so she can mail nine-figure refund checks to Hollywood studios and open state-funded Blockbuster offices across rural New Mexico. Vote accordingly. --- #### Endnotes 1. ****Teamsters Local 399 & 492 Endorsement and Haaland Film Pledges:** PR Newswire / International Brotherhood of Teamsters, **"Teamsters Locals 399 and 492 Endorse Secretary Haaland for Governor,"* Oct. 23, 2026 (citing statement by Lindsay Dougherty, Teamsters Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Division Director and Local 399 Secretary-Treasurer, Haaland's pledge to open regional field offices for the New Mexico Film Office, and her twice serving as an original cosponsor of the PRO Act). See also Deb Haaland for New Mexico, **My Plan for an Affordable New Mexico* (Feb. 2026, p. 2: **"Open Regional Film Offices"*), and New Mexico Chamber of Commerce **2026 Gubernatorial Candidate Business Questionnaire* (June 2026, p. 7). 2. ****North Hollywood Local 399 Takeover of New Mexico Film Jurisdiction:** **Deadline Hollywood*, **"Hollywood Teamsters Local Granted Jurisdiction Of New Mexico Movie & TV Crews,"* Aug. 24, 2022; Teamsters Local 399 headquarters located at 4747 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood, CA. 3. ****New Mexico Film Production Spend Collapse & Current Active Projects:** New Mexico Film Office FY22–FY26 production statistics via **Albuquerque Journal* (**"Where did New Mexico’s movie stars go?"* Oct. 20, 2026, confirming only 6 active productions statewide and total spend falling from $855.4 million in FY22 to $323 million in FY25 and $327 million in FY26, with just $55.7 million in rural spend); KOB 4 Investigates (**"Albuquerque film crews say work has dried up despite national praise,"* Aug. 6, 2026, and **"The film boom is over, what happens next?"* May 29, 2026); and **Daily Lobo* interview with NM Film Office Director Steve Graham (Oct. 5, 2026). 4. ****Albuquerque Rail Yards Film School ($73 Million Media Arts Collective):** New Mexico Madness, **"New Mexico's $73M Film School vs. Rural Workforce Needs,"* Sept. 10, 2026. 5. ****Global Film Offshoring & Runaway Production Data:** **Los Angeles Times*, **"Hollywood offshoring: A look at who's winning the global production race,"* April 13, 2026, and **Wall Street Journal*, **"See How Hollywood's Job Market Is Collapsing,"* March 30, 2026 (citing ProdPro data showing 45% of U.S. films and series shot overseas in 2025, a 30% U.S. industry employment drop since late 2022, and surging production in the U.K. and Eastern Europe/Hungary). 6. ****New Mexico Film Tax Credit Structure, Payout Caps & Negative ROI:** New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, **Film Production Tax Credit* (HB 547, 25%–40% refundable credit, 15% non-resident below-the-line labor credit, and annual caps scaling from $140M in FY26 to $150M in FY27 and $160M in FY28, plus uncapped "New Mexico Film Partner" payouts); New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) economic development tax expenditure evaluations (projecting total payouts reaching $272.1 million by FY28 and finding film subsidies cost more than double per job compared to other state economic development programs with a negative net tax revenue return of $0.14–$0.43 per dollar spent). 7. ****New Mexico Poverty & Tax Comparison:** U.S. Census Bureau SAIPE (2024/Jan. 2026) and ACS 5-year estimates (30 of 33 counties above U.S. poverty and child poverty rates; 90,276 children in poverty); Gregg Hull for Governor, **"Four Steps to Zero"* personal income tax repeal plan (Oct. 5, 2026).