Here's a question: In this time of economic recession, do you reckon that the people who run Sony Corp. are doing better financially than you are?

What if you knew that the state took money out of your pocket and gave it to the Sony people?

That's the bottom line in an excellent new report out from the group Texans for Public Justice about Texas' film industry subsidies.

The report, written by TPJ intern Beryl Lipton, summarizes how Texas has given away more than $10 million to film and video projects here, including a big chunk of change for Sony's animated movie Open Season and the Fox prime time drama Prison Break:

Under the new subsidy law, Texas taxpayers pay five percent of anything that qualifying media projects spend here (the state has approved $10.1 million in subsidies to date). Texas also exempts the industry from state sales taxes. Few people realize that most of the media-subsidy applications that Texas has approved are to produce TV ads, many benefiting the world's largest corporations.

The report also shows how the movie industry has persuaded lawmakers to create these subsidies using the help of powerful lobbyists who are themselves former lawmakers who have gone through the "revolving door" on Capitol Hill to earn paychecks winning over their former colleagues for their new clients.

It also touches on the movie-subsidy arms race that is going on throughout the country, as states fight back and forth to offer the best, most lucrative deals to the movie studios. On example: Tennessee offered $3 million in incentives in its successful bid to get the Hannah Montana movie filmed there, having to beat an offer by rival Louisiana.