California legislators are proposing two bills that would make changes to the state’s film and TV tax credit program in an attempt to lure production back to the Golden State.
The details of the bills are still being negotiated by stakeholders, state legislators said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Los Angeles headquarters of the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
But the idea is to modernize the program’s components to ensure California’s film and TV tax credit program is more competitive with other states’, Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, one of the bills’ co-sponsors, said during the press conference.
Key provisions under discussion include an increase to the effective rate of the program and an expansion of the kinds of productions that will qualify for film and TV tax credits, with a focus on those types that are leaving the state and provide “the best jobs,” Zbur said. Another is to ensure that underrepresented communities, such as formerly incarcerated people, have expanded pathways into production jobs.
“This is one of California’s foundational industries,” Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a co-sponsor of one of the bills, told The Times. “It is an economic driver for the state, and also continues to amplify the cultural creativity and the storytelling that California does unlike any place in the world.”
California’s film and TV tax credit program has created nearly 200,000 jobs and generated $26 billion in statewide economic activity, said state Sen. Ben Allen. But the program is oversubscribed, and more than 75% of projects that get rejected for a tax credit go elsewhere, he said.
Wednesday’s announcement comes about four months after Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposal to more than double the amount of money allocated annually to the state’s film tax credit program. The program’s current total is $330 million; Newsom’s proposal would increase that amount to $750 million, making California the top state for capped film incentive programs.
While state legislators and industry representatives have said the governor’s proposed increase would help address so-called runaway production, many also have said that simply upping the cap wouldn’t be enough to turn the tide and that changes to the structure of the program were necessary.
Hollywood workers have endured a difficult last few years, starting with the pandemic, when production shut down and many lost job opportunities, and continuing on to the dual writers and actors strikes in 2023 and the recent fires in Southern California, which paused production again and destroyed homes.
“For many years now, we have taken the industry for granted,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during the press conference, while flanked by representatives of the major Hollywood unions and small business owners who rely on the local industry. “I don’t want to stand here five years from now and reminiscence about an industry that has left us.”
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