Sunday, September 04, 2011

Lobbying For Tax Credits

The IATSE has been energetically plumping for a new round of feature and television tax rebates:

In the final days of the legislative session, the [movie] industry is seeking a five-year extension of a tax credit for producing films and television shows in California. It has assembled a powerful coalition of moguls and unions, who argue that failing to re-up the program risks losing film jobs to states offering even more generous rebates. ...

The bill scooted through the Assembly, but isn't on the same greased rails in the Senate. There's been opposition from other unions and Democratic power groups, since the state's budget is a wee bit in the red and dollars are tight. Plus, there is some question whether $500 million in tax credits for the big entertainment companies is a real swift idea just now.

Early next week, a host of IA union reps -- grips, editors, cinematorgaphers -- will be flying to Sacramento to push for a final vote. Whether they end up with a one-year extension, something more or something less should be known in short order.

2 comments:

Steven said...

Do the tax rebates apply to animation? If so, since the purpose of the rebates is to incentivize local job creation, shouldn't an animation producer be disqualified from receiving a rebate on a given production if most of the potential local jobs on the production are outsourced?

Anonymous said...

Apple, the most successful American corporation in the modern times, the one that so many people idolize, the one that recently has supposedly more cash on hand than the US government, contracts most, if not all of it's work overseas. So if that's what is generally advertised as the high bar of American entrepreneurial spirit and jobs creation in California, quite possibly in the United States, I don't know what is the low.

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