The state of New Mexico created tax incentives to attract filmmakers to the state. Governor Lujan Grisham placed a tax rebate cap of $110M and promised to pay the backlog of $250M tax credits due to the filmmakers. These tax incentives were designed to make filmmaking less expensive and more profitable.

The idea was to attract wealth and jobs to the state. A study found that the filmmaking enterprise in New Mexico created over fifteen thousand jobs, with average annual salaries of around $70,000. It also attracted streaming giant, Netflix, to purchase Albuquerque Studios for $30M, which entailed a $1B investment over ten years. 

This was, according to proponents, going to significantly improve the standard of living among New Mexicans by providing jobs, many of which were permanent.

Detractors of the policy said it wastes valuable state resources and taxpayer money. They pointed out that for every $0.40 generated by the movie studios, $1.00 is spent on subsidizing the cost of production, meaning $0.60 was lost per dollar of incentive. That was a significant amount of money.

They argued that the money spent subsidizing Hollywood would be better invested elsewhere, pointing to New Mexico being one of the least wealthy states in America. There were deficiencies in healthcare, education, infrastructure, and more, yet, freebies were given to big Hollywood companies at the taxpayers' expense.

Companies seemed to be setting up shop in the city, moving business away from Hollywood behemoths like Los Angeles and New York and permanently investing in the state, as the Netflix purchase of Albuquerque Studios showed.

The question for debate is, should New Mexico continue to subsidize Hollywood filmmakers to make movies?