Philadelphia film chief says she has to scrape for funds

Despite her notable successes landing major film productions (Philadelphia) and TV series (Philly), Sharon Pinkenson, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, says she has to spend as much time raising funds to keep her office going as she does lobbying Hollywood producers. Tuesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer noted that while Maryland’s Film Office, which maintains a full-time office in Hollywood, receives an annual budget of $1.2 million in government funding, Pinkenson had to “pass the tin cup” for $487,000 from various state and local public sources last year. In doing so, the newspaper noted, Pinkenson points out that for every tax dollar spent by her office last year, the city and state got back $78 in taxes and hotel and restaurant revenue, construction services and salaries. But State Commerce Secretary Sam McCullough told the Inquirer that current funding to the film office is “at appropriate levels.”