The California State Assembly has massively adopted a bill that would revise the state production tax incentive program, a key step in legislative efforts to provide support for Hollywood workers in difficulty.
The vote on Bill 1138 of the Assembly was 73 in favor and one counter, and occurs one day after a similar bill, SB 630, adopted 34-1 of the State Senate. The bills are now moving towards opposite houses, because its co-authors say they seek to accelerate the committee’s voting process so that they can be adopted by the Legislative Assembly, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, and implemented by California Film Commission, all ideally before the end of the legislative session for the year of September.
“We are in an emergency, given the levels of unemployment and the loss of activities in California because of the film industry, we therefore work with legislative leadership to find means to bring into force the bill this summer,” said Hollywood Asm. Rick Chavez Zbur, who is one of the co-authors of the Bills.
The two bills had removed the language which provides that the program’s ceiling goes from $ 330 million to $ 750 million, although this increase is still included in the revised budget of Governor Gavin Newsom for the coming fiscal year. Zbur says there is great confidence among supporters of the program expansion that the increase in the ceiling will be approved in the final budget.
“The structural support we receive from all entertainment unions, all studios, independent producers, sound stage directors and owners are uniform, and I have never seen anything like it,” he said.
The two bills, known together under the name of California Film & TV Jobs Act, would expand the types of productions eligible for tax credit, including animated productions and television shows with half an hour.
The bill also allows the productions that draw in the County of Los Angeles and from other nearby locations in the south of California to be eligible for a tax cancellation of 35% of all eligible expenses.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of films and television production jobs in California in 2024 fell by around 40,000 compared to the top of all time recorded in 2022, when continuous streaming demand and the need to catch up with Pandemie 2020 projects have helped to increase an increase in productions.
But a variety of factors have led to the decline not only in California, but in other main American production centers such as Georgia and New York in 2024. Among them, there was a reduction at the production industry when media companies sought to make their streaming services profitable, as well as an increased competition from other countries with their own tax incentives.
The combination of this drop in jobs and the loss of work caused by the 2023 strikes which closed the productions for 191 days led to thousands of entertainment workers in California faced with a serious financial struggle and questioned the future of a cornerstone of the state economy.
