Panned by people in practically every walk of life, The Amusement Tax is one movie Winnipeggers do not care to see again. After repeated promises to scrap the amusement tax, Mayor Murray is now plotting its sequel - a ten per cent 'cinema tax' for moviegoers only. Two thumbs down for the Mayor's seat tax.

The cinema tax is socialism for the rich. It's an affront to moviegoers and business, a giveaway to special interest groups and a barrier to downtown revival. The cinema tax is direct transfer from the pockets of lower-income movie buffs into the hands of local highbrow arts groups exempted from the tax but still entitled to divide the spoils of the tax revenue.

A main floor seat at the Manitoba Opera costs $50 to $66 compared to a maximum $10 movie ticket. For those who enjoy taking-in the opera or other art scenes, let them pay full fare for the show. The movie industry was conceived as low-cost entertainment for the public, not as a subsidy to the purveyors and patrons of the arts.

The motion picture theatre industry is the first casualty of the cinema tax. Not only will it continue having to support competing arts groups to the tune of about $900,000 per year, but it will also be singled out and pillaged from a seat tax without any quid pro quo. Lost on Mayor Murray is the age-old concept of service in exchange for tax. Collecting taxes for local improvements is acceptable; punitive taxes are not.

To add insult to injury, the theatre chains must also subsidize their direct competition. No stranger to the arts funding trough, Cinematheque Theatre in the Exchange District manages to avoid the amusement tax by charging admission fees below five dollars - the bare minimum before amusement taxes are charged. Arts grants generously supplied by the theatre chains and other entertainment venues keep ticket prices at the art house theatre remarkably low. Cinematheque's niche programming is targeted to a film connoisseur market that is more than capable of paying its own way.

The Mayor's plan to plunder movie theatres and their patrons is not only unfair but bad business. Flo Watson, President of the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Manitoba (MPTA) says Famous Players developed the $40 million Silver City theatres at Polo Park and at St. Vital Centre assuming that the political will to scrap the amusement tax was sincere.

The gratitude Famous Players received in return for investing millions of dollars in the city and creating hundreds of new jobs is broken promises and a brand new tax. City Hall may live up to its word and drop the amusement tax on the cutting room floor, but what use is that to the movie theatres and their patrons when a new cinema tax is spliced back into the picture?

Ms. Watson does not rule out the possibility that the theatre chains would relax admission costs if the seat tax was scrapped. She blames the GST, the amusement tax and the administration of these taxes for driving up ticket prices.

On an average $8.50 movie ticket, the GST takes 51 cents and the amusement tax gobbles up another 73 cents. Over half of the net $7.26 covers the movie rental expense from the distributor, leaving less than $3.63 for operating costs, advertising and a string of other taxes passed on to the consumer.

Apart from the standard fare of corporate income tax, property tax, business tax, payroll taxes, movie theatres must also pay a $160 cinema license per screen, an average $100 food concession license and video machine licenses. They must also pay royalties to SOCAN for playing movie soundtracks and elevator music in the concession area. Any wonder you need a line of credit to buy a bag of popcorn?

High taxes on the cinema put the latest movie theatre closures downtown into focus. Once vibrant features of the downtown landscape, core city movie theatres have been practically taxed into extinction. With low operating margins, theatre chains can only make a buck through high traffic volume. They need space - parking and multi-screen cinemas - for economies of scale, making the downtown an unsuitable destination for theatre expansion or viability.

If the Mayor and City Council are serious about championing downtown revival, they should ease up on amusement, property and business taxes and other industry-specific licensing fees to lower the cost of doing business in the city's core.

Now celebrating its 104-year anniversary, the motion picture industry has out-performed all other arts and entertainment industries at the turnstile and makes a significant contribution to the city's economy. The MPTA says that the two Silver City theatre complexes alone contribute $50 million to the city's gross domestic product.

The success of the movie theatre industry should not make it and its patrons the target of a punishing tax. The city can give a leg up to movie theatres and the local arts scene by first editing out costly and punitive levies from their productions.