Runaway Film Bill Hits Snag - State lawmakers balk ...

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 8, 2005 | Marc Lifsher

[calcowgirl]

Runaway Film Bill Hits Snag - State lawmakers balk at the cost of proposal to keep production from fleeing California by giving financial incentives to Hollywood.

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's script to stem runaway film production in California with as much as $100 million in annual tax breaks is getting panned at the Capitol.

The bill by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), which the governor made a top priority, was on the legislative fast track until Schwarzenegger's fellow Republicans balked, arguing that it amounted to a giveaway for Hollywood. Now, the bill can't even get a hearing.

With the scheduled legislative recess looming late today, Schwarzenegger and Nuñez are considering a switch in tactics. Nuñez said he hoped to line up verbal commitments from legislative leaders to put the proposed movie tax credits into the state budget for the spending year that begins in July.

"I feel that one way or the other we are going to get this done," Nuñez said Wednesday.

That's little comfort to Hollywood labor unions, independent movie producers and film commissioners, who have pushed unsuccessfully for years to enact sweeteners that they argue are needed to keep productions from fleeing.

"Other countries and other states, more and more, are picking off our jobs, one movie at a time," said Amy Lemisch, the Schwarzenegger-appointed director of the California Film Commission.

Many of those competing states offer refundable tax credits or similar financial enticements to filmmakers, Lemisch said.

A former top action star himself, Schwarzenegger is pushing the Nuñez plan but to date has done so only behind the scenes and through staff members. Spokesman Vince Sollitto said the governor had been clear in his support for the movie bill, although he could not name an instance in which Schwarzenegger publicly called for its passage.

[kmiller1k]

I don't know exactly what the tax breaks are but I ask why aren't these same incentives and breaks given to all businesses in California? Why just the movie industry?

[youthgonewild]

The movie industry is California's bread and butter. They are given breaks the same reason tobacco farmers in NC are given them.

[BurbankKarl]

They balked because it would cut into funding for illegals.

There were four movies filming in Louisiana when the hurricane hit...and more were about to head there. Every state is cheaper than CA.

[kmiller1k]

I really have no idea what the movie industry brings in in California but all businesses suffer here because if regulations, higher minimum wage, worker's comp etc. It just galls me when a large industry (like movie making) but small business owners just have to sit and take it.