Romney signed law that provides WGBH with millions, Boston Globe reports

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Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may have said during last week’s debate that he would eliminate funding to public television, but during his time as Massachusetts governor WGBH in Boston received millions from the state’s film tax credit program that Romney signed into law, according to the Boston Globe.

Last year alone WGBH received $4.2 million for programs including American Experience, Antiques Roadshow and Nova. Also, Watertown, Mass., animation studio Soup2Nuts received about $300,000 in subsidies last year, mainly for the PBS series WordGirl.

“It has been very helpful for us to make our budget,” WGBH spokesperson Jeanne Hopkins told the newspaper. “That’s funding we would have to find elsewhere.”

Under the program, Massachusetts companies get $1 in film tax credits for every $4 they spend filming movies, television shows, and commercials in the state. Over the first five years, hundreds of productions qualified for more than $276 million in credits.

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the Globe that unlike the federal government, Massachusetts had the money for the subsidies.

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