Texas jobs are at stake

Governor Abbott asked the State Legislature to renew the $95 Million film incentive program for the next two years. The legislature denied the Governor and only allocated $32 Million in the two year state budget.

An underfunded film incentive program will result in productions going to Louisiana and Georgia, both who have well funded incentives. Thousands of Texans who rely on these productions for work will suffer as a result. All the Texas business that support the industry will also lose revenue.

A program with real value

The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program supports the film and television industry by providing production companies 5%-20% rebate on the money they spend paying Texas crew members and vendors.

According to the Texas Film Commission, as a direct result of the program, production companies have spent over $1 Billion in Texas since the incentive programs inception. With the local economic impact exponentially higher.

Since 2009, when the state began granting film incentives, the Film Commission has paid $126 million in 687 awards, nearly half of that spent on television productions, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

Billions are at stake

Even Texas based production companies that are determined to keep their productions in the state are lured away to Florida, Louisiana and Georgia to take advantage of the bigger incentives.

To make matters worse for Texas film workers. California realized the necessity of these incentives and tripled their funding from $100M to $330M per year to secure more production work for California crews.

Georgia also knows how important incentives are to their booming production industry. In 2014 the Georgia film incentive program generated $1.4 Billion in spending by production companies with an estimated economic impact of over $5 Billion.

Why a special session needed

The Texas legislature is limited and its regular session ends June 1st. The only way for the legislature to revisit this issue is to call a special session. In Texas only the governor may call the Legislature into special sessions and he also sets the agenda for the session he calls.

Without a fully funded incentive program Texans lose.

Sources:

Texas Tribune: Abbott Aide Asks to Maintain Film Incentive Program Funding

Texas Public Radio: Texas Slashes Film and Video Game Incentives, Everyone Loses

Texas Tribune: Funding Cut as Film, Video Game Lobbies Squabble

Georgia Press Release: FILM INDUSTRY GENERATES $5.1 BILLION IN ECONOMIC IMPACT

Variety: California Rebounds Sharply in 2014 Feature Film Production