Los Angeles County to ask state to stem film production flight
Los Angeles County officials will ask the state to do more to keep film production in California.
The county’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to send a five-signature letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and members of the Legislature asking them to “recognize the negative impacts high taxes and excessive regulations have on the entertainment industry and provide reforms to make California competitive with other states who are successfully luring film and television production away from California.”
Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who proposed the county letter, said Southern California has lost $3 billion in wages in the last decade as a result of entertainment industry flight to other states.
“The Governor and the Legislature have not competed aggressively on the tax base front and the State’s excessive regulations are devastating the economy,” Antonovich wrote.
Paul Audley, president of FilmLA, which oversees film permiting in the county, praised the supervisors’ move.
Not only are film productions fleeing the state, he said, but: “We’re now at a point where we’re losing the infrastructure that supports the industry at a rapid rate.”
The Legislature is considering a bill to extend the state’s current $100 million a year film production tax credit. Many in the entertainment industry want to see that funding increased to rival the more than $400 million a year that New York provides.
Twitter: @sewella
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
