Hollywood stakeholders are calling on California to bolster its film and TV tax credit to keep its homegrown industry from permanently leaving the state.
Film industry and union officials are mobilizing to back legislation this year that would substantially increase funding for the state's film incentive program and lift some restrictions to make the program more competitive with those offered by New York, Georgia and other states and countries.
"The bottom line is, these countries and these states realize what production means to them, and we have to show them [lawmakers] why we're missing the boat here," said Tom Sherak, Los Angeles' newly appointed film czar. "It's unbelievable they are doing this right under our noses." ...
We're not huge fans of tax credits/subsidies around here, but California has gotten its skull kicked in the last few years as Canada, New York, Georgia and other places have cranked up subsidies and sucked a lot of film work into their jurisdictions.
So for the west coast, there are really two options: Stand pat, let events to unfold, and run the risk of losing even more work, or beef up film subsidies.
The entertainment unions and guilds (or which we are one) have elected to mount a lobbying campaign to achieve a level of subsidies that will put California on a more even playing field. (Yes, long-term it might be a fools errand, but short-term lots of people suffer job losses So West Coast unions are pushing for subsidies equal to other states.)
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