The entertainment industry recently received good news on two fronts related to fighting runaway production through state film and television production incentives.
On July 30, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that the five-year, $500 million California Film & Television Tax Credit Program that was passed in early 2009 has already generated $2 billion in direct spending and over 22,000 jobs for cast and crew members in just its first two years.
"The enormous interest in our tax credit program shows that a targeted incentive can keep tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in California," said California Film Commission Executive Director Amy Lemisch. "I am thrilled with how effective this program has been."
On August 3, the New York State Senate passed long-awaited legislation to extend their state's production incentive program into 2015 and increase the amount of funds available to $420 million per year. New York Governor David Paterson, who had proposed extending and re-funding the program in his 2010 State Budget, signed the legislation, providing the entertainment industry with sorely-needed stability that will allow film and television production in New York to continue to rely on this crucial program.
In California, the DGA and other members of a coalition that includes IATSE locals, AFTRA, SAG, the Teamsters, RMA, the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund, and the MPAA, spent 10 years actively lobbying state lawmakers to enact a production incentive to help combat the runaway production that was quickly driving jobs out of California and the United States in favor of powerful production incentive plans elsewhere. Given the effort put into passage of the legislation, we are gratified to be able to show lawmakers the quantifiable success of the plan. This will be an important building block for future efforts.
The DGA has been working for many months with a similar industry-wide coalition in New York, including IATSE locals, AFTRA, SAG and the Teamsters, MPAA, Silvercup, Steiner, Kaufman-Astoria, NYPA, and others to lobby for an extension and enhancement of the NY State Tax Credit program. We believe that with the assurance that the New York program will continue at least through 2015, it will ensure that New York-based productions continue to provide good jobs for our DGA members in New York and the surrounding areas.
