WASHINGTON FILMWORKS
It was recently confirmed that Governor Gregoire will sign 2ESB 5539 tonight at a signing ceremony scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm in Olympia. The bill is 11th bill on the agenda. This ceremony is open to the public and members of the film community are invited to attend. Representatives from Washington Filmworks will be in attendance as well. Visit the Washington Filmworks blog for directions and more information.
Washington Filmworks
Washington Filmworks announces that SB 5539 has been scheduled for a hearing this morning in the House Committee on Community & Economic Development & Housing at 10 am. Washington Filmworks Board Chair, Becky Bogard, and Executive Director, Amy Lillard, are in Olympia this morning to testify on behalf of the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program. Says Lillard, “This morning’s hearing is evidence that the bill is moving quickly. This legislative session is scheduled to end March 8th, so there is no time to delay. Please contact your Representatives by telephone or email as soon as possible in support of SB5539.”
New York Times
Among the states that began underwriting film and television production with heavy subsidies over the past half-decade — 44 states had some sort of incentives by last year, 28 of them involving tax credits — at least a handful are giving new scrutiny to a question that was politely overlooked in the early excitement: What kind of films are taxpayers paying for? “This is tough for filmmakers to understand, but this is not about their right to make the movie,” Bob Hudgins, the Texas film commission director explained. “It’s about the public investing in it.” Several states have rules in their incentive legislation which prohibits funding for films which portray the state or the residents of that state in a negative fashion or which do not contribute to the economic development of the state. “This is not an entitlement program,” Ken Droz, the communications consultant for the Michigan Film Office said. In Florida, a recent legislative proposal to bar a special tax credit for family entertainment from films or shows that exhibit “nontraditional family values” was dropped after it was widely criticized as seeming to exclude gay characters. “All the states will be looking at this as they begin to tighten their belts,” said Marshall Moore, director of the Utah Film Commission. His state has unabashedly declined to fund pictures that, as Mr. Moore put it, you could not take the governor to see. Of the others, he predicted: “They’re going to ask, why are we giving money to that movie?”
On Top Magazine
A proposed incentive package for the film industry being considered by Florida lawmakers would likely exclude films with gay characters. Lawmakers hope the $75 million package of tax credits and incentives will entice filmmakers to set up shop in Florida. However, the tax credit would only be available to films that do not exhibit or imply “nontraditional family values.” Representative Stephen Precourt, an Orlando Republican, told the Palm Beach Post that his House Bill did not target the gay community. But when asked if movies with gay characters should get the tax credit, he said, “That would not be the kind of thing I’d say we want to invest public dollars in.” Ted Howard, executive director of Florida Together, a federation of 80 organizations which support equal rights for all Florida families, including gay families, said in a statement, “Real-life families come in all shapes and sizes. Marginalizing single-parent families, gay families and other non-traditional families by instituting 1950’s-style movie censorship does nothing to support real-life families or help Florida’s struggling economy.” To read the full story, follow the above link.
Seattle Weekly
The Bella Bag, as it’s now known, is handmade in a Fremont basement studio by Angie Bowlds. The 27-year-old seamstress is frantically churning them out and mailing them off to fans of the angsty teen-vampire romance-novel series Twilight and of the film which has grossed over $191 million domestically since its November release. The current wait time for one of Bowlds’ $175 satchels is about three weeks, though she expects it to hit a month soon. “It just snowballed,” she says.
Bowlds’ business has reaped huge benefits from the movie, set in and around the Olympic Peninsula and filmed in the Northwest as well. Now legislators in Olympia are one signature away from passing a law that will give massive tax breaks to production companies in hopes that the sequel, as well as a slew of other Hollywood films, will shoot in the state.
KOMO News
The state of Washington is pushing for more lights, camera and action around these parts. Gov. Chris Gregoire is considering a bill that could pay production companies and film crews cold, hard cash for setting up shop in the state. Seattle has its beauty, but many companies still balk on shooting their films and TV shows here because of production costs. But now, Washington wants to up the ante by offering big cash incentives to companies that film in the state. If the governor signs a new bill, production companies could get back up to 30 percent of what they spend in our state. This change in the state law would mean smaller, independent films would profit the most, as would the job market.
Yahoo Finance:
Hungry to prop up their ailing economies, U.S. states are locked in a fierce competition to lure Hollywood filmmakers to their gritty cities and picturesque towns with tax breaks and other incentives. The movement remains intense despite state budgets facing near crisis, largely because the movie and TV industry has emerged as a tough survivor in hard economic times. California, facing a $42 billion budget deficit, nevertheless approved a film tax credit Thursday.The film industry’s economic health has pushed some states like Ohio to take a second look at tax breaks for filmmakers and TV producers after years of viewing such financial incentives as luxuries the state couldn’t afford. The state shuttered its film commission for five years in 2002 because of budget cutbacks.
New York Times:
A study of New York’s tax breaks for movie and television production suggested that a 30 percent credit offered by the state, with an additional 5 percent offered by New York City, could be expected to keep or create about 19,500 jobs while yielding $404 million in tax revenue, at a cost of $215 million in credits. The study, completed last week, was conducted by the accounting firm Ernst & Young for both the Motion Picture Association of America and the film office of New York State.
Applying the new 30 percent subsidy rate and current tax rates to the level of activity that occurred in 2007, Ernst & Young figured that the state would have spent $184.4 million, while getting $208.7 million back in taxes. New York City, meanwhile, would get $195.3 million from a tax credit expenditure of only $30.7 million. Ernst & Young said it figured about 7,000 jobs were gained or retained in direct film employment, while an additional 12,500 came from related economic activity, not counting any increase in tourism spending.
