The expansion of California film credit hits the SNAG as a deleted removal figure
The expansion of California’s cinematographic and television tax credit, which industry stakeholders claim is essential to protect jobs in the state, struck a problem on Friday, while legislators suppressed the references in the bill of the bill to increase the program ceiling to $ 750 million.
Governor Gavin Newsom promised last fall to increase the $ 330 million program to $ 750 million. Two bills, AB 1138 and SB 630, have progressed in the legislative process to adopt this increase and other changes to make the program more attractive to producers.
Friday, bills were adopted through the assembly and Senate credits committees, but the references to $ 750 million have been abolished. This dollar figure could be added later in the budgetary process, but for the moment it is not guaranteed.
“We are certainly disappointed with this direction, and this is something that we are going to repel when budgetary negotiations are starting to warm up,” said Senator Ben Allen, who is the author of the Senate of the bill. “We have looked at the decline of this critical industry in real time in recent years, and we cannot continue to sit on the sidelines. This program must be modernized if we want to keep California as a world entertainment center. ”
Deleting the dollar figure could prove to be a hiccup in the process. Industry supporters have been convinced that expansion will be approved.
The assembly Rick Chavez Zbur, who is the author of the assembly version, said that even if nothing is 100%guaranteed, he thinks that there is a large support in the two houses for the increase.
“I think there is a very, very strong support for the result to continue to be $ 750 million,” said Zbur. “It was a good day. We released the bill. “
The changes were made when the committees voted on hundreds of bills, which must be issued from the “suspense file” to go to the ground.
Newsom confirmed the support of the increase of $ 750 million last week after issuing a revised budget proposal in the Legislative Assembly.
“We have to intensify things,” he said.
The legislator must adopt a budget by June 15, although certain financing articles can be discussed later than through the bills of the trailer.
Dozens of representatives of the entertainment union attended a series of audiences in Sacramento this spring to put pressure for expansion. In the testimony before the assembly and the Senate committees, they argued that the State must do more to compete with attractive incentive programs in other states and abroad.
As written currently, legislation would increase the amount of the tax credit by 20% of skilled expenses to 35%. This would drop 40% for productions outside the Los Angeles region, or in economically depressed areas of Los Angeles.
The program would also extend to include animated films and television programs, sitcoms and large -scale competition shows. Additional changes should add eligibility for the musical score.
