Bill to Provide $400M in Tax Breaks to Film Industry to Work Locally Heads to Senate

A bill that would provide $400 million a year in tax breaks to film and television productions to keep them in California is headed to the Senate floor for a vote, after clearing its final committee, Los Angeles assembly members said today.

A vote by the full Senate is expected by the end of the legislative session on Aug. 31.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and other local politicians lobbied extensively for the expansion of the state’s film tax credit program, which currently provides $100 million in tax credits.

The idea is to be competitive with other states. New York provides $420 million in credits for TV and film productions.

Assembly Bill 1839 did not have a specific dollar figure attached to it until today.

The bill would also expand incentives by making bigger budget movies eligible for tax credits and provide larger incentives to attract movie and TV projects from out of state.

Los Angeles-area Assemblyman Mike Gatto, one of the bill’s authors, said the expanded program would help make sure “well-paying jobs stay in California and families remain together.”

In 2009, the California Film and Television Job Retention and Promotion Act took effect. It has been credited with preventing about 51,000 jobs from leaving the state and adding about $4.5 billion the state economy, according to Gatto’s office.

But about 16,000 film and TV jobs, representing about $1.5 billion in wages, have been lost to other states and countries between 2004 and 2012, based on figures from Gatto’s office.

Getting the bill passed would be a “critical step forward to bringing back high-paying film jobs to California,” said Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, D-Pacoima, Gatto’s co-author on the bill.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch photo credit: Penny Arévalo