Broadway still netting COVID-era taxpayer bailout with Hochul, pols even boosting fund to $550M

The fat lady has sung, but try telling that to Albany.Gov.Hochul and the state legislature are still using taxpayer funds for a COVID-era giveaway for Broadway flops — and even quietly boosted the pot by $150 million in this year’s budget.“This is another New York taxpayer subsidy for wealthy investors that should not exist,” said John Kaheny, executive director of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany.“New York State taxpayers should not be underwriting Broadway shows.

There’s no fiscal or economic argument for it,” he said.The massive special-interest goodie — a k a the NYC Musical and Theater Production Tax Credit — was started during the pandemic to help keep even traditional theater hits such as “The Lion King” and “Wicked” afloat during the dark times.The financial break, similar to a separate pandemic-era subsidy for film and TV productions in New York, started as a $100 million emergency program but has steadily increased in the years since — despite Broadway’s attendance and gross revenues recovering post-pandemic.The program’s pot is jumping $150 million this fiscal year — up from $400 million to $550 million.A theater show can receive tax credits of 25 percent of qualified expenditures — or up to $3 million per production — under the program.Hundreds of millions of its dollars have supported short-run flops including “KPOP,” “Tammy Faye” and “Mrs.Doubtfire,” as well as box-office behemoths such as “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Chicago The Musical,” “The Lion King,” “Wicked,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Aladdin,” “Hadestown” and “Moulin Rouge!” according to nysfocus.com in March.The site noted that some of the shows received millions of dollars after they had already closed.

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politicsFor example, the doomed 2024 musical “Tammy Faye” netted $2....