Less than a year ago, the General Assembly created the Kentucky Film Leadership Council, giving it the responsibility of reviewing and approving taxpayer subsidies for projects filmed in the state. The film council held its first meeting in July.
The owner of the Lexington-based studio Wrigley Media, Misdee Wrigley Miller, was out front advocating for the council’s creation. In 2017, Wrigley Miller acquired a majority share of Post Time Productions, renamed it and transformed a former multiplex movie theater into a 50,000-square-foot production studio.
Wrigley Miller has been a generous campaign contributor, donating a total of $44,800 to various Kentucky political campaigns and legislative caucus committees since 2020. So, when it came time for Gov. Andy Beshear to appoint the film council’s new members, it should come as no surprise that she got the gig.
One of the film council’s first actions was adopting bylaws that prescribe how it would conduct its business. A standard feature of an organization’s bylaws is a conflict-of-interest policy, which the film council included as part of theirs.
The policy states that no member of the film council “shall have ownership in any firm…interested in a contract or agreement with the council.” Pretty strong stuff – negated, more or less, by the next provision requiring only that a member with a financial interest in a project being considered for subsidies disclose their interest and refrain from discussing or voting on the project’s application.
The film council’s meeting packets and minutes are posted online. Twenty-nine projects have been approved for financial awards since August. Of those, Ms. Wrigley Miller disclosed a financial interest in eight of the projects and left the room while they were being discussed and voted on. All eight were approved, qualifying for a total of $8,318,260 in subsidies.
Another film council member, Jeremy Winton, the co-founder of the Kentucky Sound Stage in Owensboro, appears to be feeding from the same trough. In accordance with the bylaws, Winton has removed himself nine times from the council’s discussion of projects he was involved with.
I’d say this kind of thing happens all the time in Frankfort, but this is pretty brazen. The film council only has seven members. Three are state employees – political appointees working in the Beshear administration.
To be clear, nothing about this is illegal. The General Assembly could have prohibited people who own production studios and are interested in qualifying for the incentives from serving on the film council but chose not to.
I have no doubt that a number of legislators will find it troubling that two board members are reaping substantial cash awards paid for by their constituents’ tax dollars. But the train has left the station.
The legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, would almost certainly fight against any changes aimed at putting a stop to this kind of thing going forward. And, as chair of the Senate Economic Development Committee, Wheeler controls which bills are heard in his committee.
The best thing taxpayers might hope for is greater scrutiny on new economic development incentives in the 2026 session. At a minimum, the General Assembly should slow down the process, allowing for more input and scrutiny of any proposal.
The film council legislation could have been brought forward during the interim period and would’ve benefited from transparency and time. Unfortunately, legislators often want to keep the public from knowing too much about anything that would prove unpopular if it was vetted in the open.
Something else caught my eye while reviewing the projects approved by the film council. Paramount Pictures won approval for a film budgeted at $24 million, qualifying for a $7.8 million subsidy. Though relatively modest compared to most Hollywood-sized productions, it’s a good test to see if we can beat out states with much larger film incentive programs like Georgia and attract a project from a major studio.
Or will we continue to see more of the same low budget stuff as we have in the past? Like Prank Call, one of Misdee Wrigley Miller’s projects being co-financed by Kentucky’s taxpayers.
Andrew McNeill is the President and Senior Policy Fellow at the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education (KYFREE). He served as the Deputy State Budget and Policy Director in Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration. His email address is amcneill@kyfree.org.
