Act Fast!!!
15% Tax Break for productions in CA Bill Proposed
Allows More Time for Comment: Dead Line Aug 4th
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A key State Senate committee has delayed debate until August 7 on a measure designed to keep entertainment production jobs at home. TV Academy leaders and various guilds have urged their members to speak up in favor of the measure, and the July 2 postponement prompted by extra work on the state budget allowed more time to do so.
The draft legislation to counter runaway production recently passed the California Assembly by an overwhelming margin of 68-1. Sponsored by Los Angeles Democrat Herb J. Wesson, the Assembly speaker, measure AB2747 remains in the state Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.
As approved by the Assembly, the bill would give production companies a 15 percent tax credit on wages, provided they keep at least half the production work in California. To qualify, projects must generate between $200,000 and $10 million in total wages. The credit would apply to the first $25,000 paid each employee.
An independent study of feature film production alone concluded that foreign subsidies to "imported" U.S. productions have helped suck $4.1 billion and 25,000 jobs from the U.S. economy in the past four years. The study was released in May by the Center for Entertainment Industry Data & Research.
For the bill to become law, the six-member Taxation Committee must keep it moving through the Senate. If they do, its next stop will be the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Here are the Taxation Committee members and their e-mail addresses:
Jack Scott (Taxation Committee chair): senator.scott@sen.ca.gov
Charles Poochigian (vice-chair): senator.poochigian@sen.ca.gov
Dede Alpert (Appropriations Committee chair): senator.alpert@sen.ca.gov
Debra Bowen: senator.bowen@sen.ca.gov
John Burton (Senate president): senator.burton@sen.ca.gov
William "Pete" Knight: senator.knight@sen.ca.gov
