Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles said Tuesday that she was taking steps to make filming in the city easier as local, state and federal officials have grown concerned about the exodus of film and television production to other states and nations.
The mayor issued an executive directive to streamline city processes, lower the costs of filming in the city and make it easier for productions to shoot at well-known city-owned locations like the Griffith Observatory. The mayor also reaffirmed her support for a massive funding increase for the state’s film tax credit program.
“We are going to fight now,” Ms. Bass said at a news conference on Tuesday morning. “While we push for the tax credits to be passed in Sacramento, we need to do what we can today to impact building in Los Angeles.”
Though the specific changes detailed in the directive are somewhat technical, the move by Ms. Bass represents a signal of her support for the film industry at a time it faces something of a existential crisis. Filming in the region is down roughly a third in recent years, lured away by massive subsidies in other states and other countries, which often offer cheaper labor. The exodus has left tens of thousands of middle-class union workers without jobs.
At the news conference inside SAG-AFTRA’s headquarters, Ms. Bass — flanked by more than a dozen members of the film and television industry — also reiterated her support for a proposal by Gov. Gavin Newsom of California to dramatically increase the size of the state’s tax credit program for film and television to $750 million annually from $330 million.
Lawmakers in Sacramento are expected to finalize the state budget next month. Mr. Newsom’s plan appears to have wide support, but exactly how much money lawmakers will ultimately allot to Hollywood at a time the state faces a $12 billion deficit is unclear.
The issue of production going overseas captured the attention of President Trump, who recently called for a 100 percent tariff on films made outside the United States — only for the White House to later clarify that no final decisions had been made after the film industry reacted with alarm.
Mayor Bass’s new order aims to cut red tape by reducing review timelines, lowering city fees and cutting the number of city employees required to monitor film shoots. The order is also meant to help improve communication and logistics around shoots.
A news release announcing the mayor’s order called the entertainment industry “a cornerstone of the Los Angeles economy.”
The wildfires that ripped through the county earlier this year exacerbated the crisis, prompting a renewed push by state and local lawmakers to increase funding for California’s film incentive program and pass legislation that will ease the burden on studios that want to make movies in Hollywood.
“The entertainment industry is the reason Los Angeles was put on the map,” said Adrin Nazarian, a Los Angeles city councilman who wrote a motion aimed at streamlining the film permitting process. “But then over the course of the last 30 or 40 years, we’ve fallen asleep.”
Matt Stevens writes about arts and culture news for The Times.
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