BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Fighting to keep its tax break program from being gutted, the film industry is circulating a rosier economic analysis of the program's impact in Louisiana  than a state-financed study.

The study released Monday by the Motion Picture Association of America suggests Louisiana's film tax breaks generated 33,500 jobs. That's more than twice the number of jobs estimated in the state-financed analysis.

The industry's analysis, done by New York-based HR&A Advisors, claims 15 percent of the state's visitors were influenced by interest in movies and TV filmed in Louisiana. It reached that conclusion based on an online survey of Louisiana visitors.

Economist Loren Scott, who conducted the state's study of the film tax break program, said that tourism figure "doesn't pass the smell test" and isn't based on economic principles.

 

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