Marilyn Dondero Loop Trusted Hollywood's Promises. I Didn't.
I stood against the Hollywood Handout because it never made sense. This week, the news proved me right, and it happened fast.
Last November, Nevada lawmakers debated the biggest corporate giveaway in state history.
It was called AB5, and critics on the left and right both slapped it with the same nickname: the “Hollywood Handout.”
The bill would have handed $1.8 billion in transferable tax credits to giant Hollywood studios over 15 years, built around a proposed studio project in Summerlin backed by Sony, Howard Hughes Holdings, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
My opponent in the race for Senate District 8, Marilyn Dondero Loop, backed it. I opposed it.
I said these companies didn't need Nevada's money. I said the whole deal rested on promises from massive corporations that look out for themselves first and Nevada second.
This week, we got proof.
On Monday, Nevada's own attorney general, Aaron Ford, joined eleven other state attorneys general in suing to block a $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery is the same studio central to the Summerlin project AB5 was built around. Ford and the other AGs argue the merger would hurt competition and raise prices for consumers nationwide.
Think about that for a second.
Nevada Democrats wanted to hand this industry $120 million a year because they said it needed help.
Now Nevada's top Democrat law enforcement officer says the same industry is too powerful and needs a federal judge to rein it in.
Which is it?
It gets worse for the case my opponent made.
Days before that lawsuit was filed, reports surfaced that Paramount's leadership was discussing moving the company's headquarters out of California and shifting as much as $30 billion a year in spending elsewhere.
Why?
Because they're locked in a fight with California regulators over this very merger. This is a company willing to threaten its own home state as a bargaining chip.
That is exactly the kind of company Nevada was about to write a blank check to.
A business willing to redirect billions overnight for leverage isn't a stable partner for a 15-year tax credit deal. It's a company looking out for itself, full stop.
I said this back during the special session. Nevada taxpayers were being asked to bet $1.8 billion on promises from studios that could change direction the moment it helped their bottom line.
My opponent took that bet. I didn't. Now we're watching it unfold in real time.
Warner Bros. Discovery's future is tied up in a federal antitrust fight that could drag on for years. Whatever promises those companies made to Nevada are worth exactly what their lawyers say they're worth on any given day.
Senate District 8 deserves a senator who asks hard questions before signing off on billion-dollar promises, not one who takes Hollywood's word for it.
I asked those questions. My opponent didn't.
Nevada wasn't short on reasons to say no to corporate welfare. This week, Hollywood handed us one more.
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