Tax Incentives for Captioned Movies

Editor: You've all "heard" my whining about the dismal attendance at captioned movies and the danger that communities will lose their captioned movies as a result. Here's a great idea that will encourage theaters to provide captioning, even if the turnout is less than spectacular: tax incentives to theaters that provide captioned movies.

If you want to sign the petition, point your browser to http://www.petitiononline.com/ctaxcutc/petition.html. I think this particular petition is intended for Houston residents. But they didn't say that, so I signed it!

The real reason I'm publishing this is I hope to encourage you to undertake a similar petition in your community!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A petition to stress the people's support in providing accessible movie going experiences for those who are deaf and for those studying English as a Second Language by providing tax cuts for movie theatres so that they will dedicate at least one screen for on-screen captioning 7/24 and fare better than those who are not willing to offer captioning:

Whereas:
the cost of purchasing on-screen captioned films for showing may exceed the net revenue -- the revenue may be lower than the compared average amount of revenue generated per screen in the theater.

Whereas:
many businesses take advantage of charity/community services due to tax incentives, causing the businesses to take advantage of the action and as the result, accessibility for the deaf in movie theaters will be prevalent throughout the area.

Whereas:
Currently many deaf and people wanting to view captioned films are restricted to foreign subtitled films created by independent film- supported theatres and the sporadically shown screen captioned films shown in AMC Studio 30 in West Houston, thereby causing inconvenience in terms of times, availability of movie titles, and distance from many points in the large area of the metropolis.

Whereas:
Support for captioned films can be easily found in the deaf community and English as a second language communities in the diverse neighborhoods. The hearing impaired population that is not late deafened stands at 300,000 in Metro Houston, and the number is significantly greater when including English as a second language students in the area, where immigrants constitute a large segment of the Houstonian population.

Be it enacted:
Tax cuts for movie theatres providing at least a screen dedicated to captioning 24 hours, 7 days a week, and their tax rate to be determined by whoever deemed fit to be responsible for the job, as determined by the city. The tax rate will ensure that the movie theatres will stay in good health and generally generate higher net revenue after taxes, allaying the fear of the possibility of streamlining attendance (or seeing a drop in overall attendance) for those specifically allocated captioned screens which could possibly effect in a drop in concession net revenue.

Movie going experiences can be enjoyed and accessible to all interested parties and individuals in Metro Houston while the movie theaters will be able to continue to generate approximately the same amount of revenue as if the screen was not captioned, or retain exceeding revenues due to the success of the endeavor. Also, future enactments and regulations in promoting publicity should be enacted in the future - such as ensuring that the availability of captioning is being made aware in the general community via display in the front box office, newspapers, and any available media source where information regarding movies are generally found.