ALBANY – New York spent $2.6 billion on tax breaks for the film industry from 1997 to 2015, far outpacing every other state in the country, according to a pair of recently released studies.

The studies from University of Southern California researchers question the job-creation impacts of the lucrative tax breaks, which are offered by states to major movie-makers to entice them to film within a particular state’s borders.

No state has spent close to New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly touted the tax credit as an effective tool to drive film-industry spending and jobs to the Empire State.

Of the $10 billion spent nationally on such credits from 1997 to 2015, more than a quarter was in New York.

The second-place state, Louisiana, lagged far behind with $1.5 billion, while no other state topped $1 billion, according to the studies.

“The incentives are a bad investment,” USC assistant professor Michael Thom, the studies’ lead author, told the school’s website. “States pour millions of tax dollars into a program that offers little return.”

New York first launched a form of film tax incentives in 2004.

Now, the credit covers up to 30 percent of qualified production costs for movies or televisions shows that film or perform post-production work in the state. The state can spend a maximum of $420 million a year on the credit.

The tax breaks have lured major motion pictures like “Spider-Man 2” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2” to film scenes in Rochester and Buffalo, respectively.

The majority, though, are shot in New York City.

Speaking Wednesday at the opening of Silvercup Studios’ new $35 million facility in the Bronx, Cuomo said the tax credit has spurred jobs and been a “great, great New York success story.”

It can be quite lucrative: Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black,” which largely films in Rockland County, received $10 million for a single season. CBS’ “The Good Wife” got $15.5 million.

The two studies were both recently published in scholarly journals.

The first, which was printed in June by The American Review of Public Administration, examined the economic benefits of state tax incentives for the film industry, finding they have “little to no sustained impact on employment or wage growth.”

Refundable tax credits, such as the one offered in New York allowing film-makers to recoup 30 percent of their production costs, did spur short-term increases in wages, but did not lead to long-term employment gains, according to the study.

The second study — published earlier this month in American Politics Research— examined what led more than 45 states to offer film tax incentives at some point, and what led 11 of those states to repeal them.

States began offering film tax incentives in the late 1990s to try and entice the industry away from traditional home bases in California and New York, the study found. In the early 2000s, the incentives rapidly expanded to other states hoping to compete, including 2004 in New York.

As unemployment went up, states were more likely to enact film tax breaks, the study found. As unemployment went back down, states were more likely to repeal them.

The highest-spending states, however, have largely not moved to repeal them.

Of the 15 states who spent more than $100 million cumulatively on film tax breaks, only North Carolina and Michigan repealed theirs, the study found.

Critics have often targeted New York’s film tax program, questioning whether the benefits of boosting the film industry in the state outweigh the costs.

Cuomo has often come to the program’s defense, painting it as a key tool in the state’s economic-development toolbox.

In a report last year commissioned by the state, economic development firm Camoin Associates found the credit spurred about 30,761 “direct jobs” in 2013 and 2014 about $5 billion a year in spending in New York.

“When you think of shooting a movie, time after time, think of what they are going to do here,” Cuomo said. “Yes, you have 400 cast members, you have 2,700 extras, but then … you have carpenters who were working building sets… It is amazing all the ancillary jobs that are produced when you are producing a movie.”

In April 2015, WikiLeaks released emails that showed Sony Pictures’ executives were urged to donate to Cuomo’s re-election bid in 2014.

He has received nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from the industry, some of which was raised at Hollywood fundraisers, campaign finance records showed.

He and his office have denied any quid pro quo.

E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, a fiscally-conservative think tank, said the USC studies add “significant new evidence to the already large amounts of evidence that this policy is not defensible.”

“If (the studies) were about any other industry, this would be another nail in the coffin of a clearly wasteful practice,” McMahon said. “We spent the most of any other state, and yet the results have been negligible.”

In a statement, a spokesman for Empire State Development — the state authority that oversees the tax credit — defended the film incentive program, saying it has “been responsible for injecting billions of dollars into New York’s economy.”

In 2015, the authority had 202 applications for the credit from 125 feature films, 56 TV series and 21 television pilots, according to ESD.

“With more and more films choosing New York locations and TV series shooting season after season, the production and post-production industries are booming in New York State like never before and it simply would not be possible without this program,” spokesman Jason Conwall said.

© 2016 Gannett News Service