State support for the contracting L.A. film and TV industry is now in the hands of California Governor Gavin Newsom and some (hoperfully) very creative accountants.
With just hours to spare, the California State Senate passed SB 2319 by a vote of 33-5. The legislation creates a separate tax incentive for the post-production industry. The bill now moves on to Newsom’s desk.
Earlier this year, state representatives talked about the post-production credit reaching up to $100 million in allocated incentives across VFX, scoring, mixing and more. That sky-high number is now more realistically envisioned at around $35 million for the first year.
It has one big problem: Should Newsom sign SB 2319, there’s no funding for it.
Yet, as close as the post-production credit might be to being added to the incentives program administered by the California Film Commission, the reality is there is still no actual funding in place for it.
The borderline-baroque $352 billion state budget is so tightly wound with its zero-deficit demands that money for such a new credit is nowhere to be seen, no matter how hard Hollywood has advocated for it and, truth be told, desperately needs it to turn the job losses around.
Should Newsom — who has aspirations to the White House — sign the bill, the state’s accounting boffins will have to find a way to fund it.
The Motion Picture Editor’s Guild issued a statement praising the bill’s passing.
On the corporate side of things, State lawmakers on Friday introduced a bill meant to allow studios a few key exemptions from a recently enacted restriction on corporate tax credits.
AB136, introduced Friday evening, addresses concerns raised from stakeholders including the Motion Picture Association about the threat of undermining the efforts to expand California’s Film & TV Tax Credit pool to $750 million.
Lawmakers have to consider legislation for 72 hours before voting. With that in mind, a vote on AB136 is likely to come Monday evening, hours before the midnight end to the legislative session.
Katie Campione contributed to this post.
