I've watched most of the movies filmed in New Mexico in the last ten years. Almost always on video (I think I saw four movies total in the theater last year), but I did see True Grit on the big screen. Much like live concerts, going to the movie theater has priced me out. $10? Really? So if I can't make it to the early bird (significantly less than regular price) then I don't even think about going. I pay $20 a month to Netflix to watch almost any movie I want.

So I'm a supporter, even though I haven't seen a "life-changing" flick in quite a while. Watching the Oscars, I wondered if the people who produce the show watch movies much. I still haven't seen half of the nominees, even though I probably will eventually. I can say I wasn't that impressed with The Kids Are Alright. If one of the mothers was a father and nothing else was changed...this would have been a Lifetime TV movie. And a bad one at that.

Maybe that's just me.

But here in New Mexico, films are a big business. Our new governor does not see film making as a business. Or not a business she wants to support (even though she does claim to be pro-business, and certainly is a fan of the energy business--especially oil and gas). So the rebates the state gives to films that shoot here are in her cross-hairs. You see, according to her, if we give these rebates in the same quantities as we have in the last decade, we're killing our children.

Okay, maybe that's slightly hyperbolic. But she can't say "film rebates" without adding "money for our classrooms" in the same sentence.

So there are the two sides. Some of us like that TV shows and films are shot in the state (even if some of both aren't that good), and some of us would rather all those jobs and money go to some other state.

There's a compromise coming (this year at least), and it's hard to say what it will do to the film industry here in New Mexico. Most likely it means a lot of the little films that were made here in the past won't get made here (because putting a cap on funds means first come first served...and big movies have longer timelines). And for every Avengers that occupies a studio for most of a year, a lot of little movies get made in a month or two. That's a lot of crew, extras and even bit parts.

I'm not an expert on any of this, but I watch a lot of movies.

And some shot here are pretty damn good. The Coen Brothers have shot (at least partially) a couple of classics here: No Country For Old Men and True Grit. "Breaking Bad" is one of just a couple TV shows I actually watch in real time (not on DVD). And, you know what? Beerfest is pretty funny.

I was watching Macgruber, a full-length riff on an SNL skit, and a few minutes into the movie I thought, "This could have been shot here." A few minutes later I realized it actually was. In Albuquerque. Didn't make it a good movie. But I knew a chunk of the budget was spent here in town. In the state. And that's economic activity.

People get all up in arms about actor's salaries and private jets and stuff like that. Let me just point out there's waste in all industries. Some of it toxic. And certainly the people at the top of the food chain are making a disproportionate amount of money compared to everyone underneath them.

But even in the worst movies shot here in New Mexico (Did You Hear About The Morgans? I'm looking at you), the cinematographer has been able to include astonishing shots of the amazing vistas a lot of us who live here full time take for granted.

And that, to me, is worth the price of the film rebates.

Matt Worley knows that, even with gas prices going up, the oil and natural gas industries will still get their state tax breaks. Is that like a double tax on us regular New Mexicans?