Policy committee approves film retention bill

A bill that would expand tax credits for movie studios that stay and film in California was approved 6-0 this week by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

AB 1839, also known as the California Film and Television Job Retention Promotion Act of 2014, was coauthored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) and Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima), and has cleared the final policy committee.

Now the bill heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee, though a cap on how much the tax credits would be has yet to be set.

“I remember when our communities lost all the good aerospace jobs,” Gatto said in a statement. “Losing major employers really harms local families and our state economy. This effort is a rare example of government taking proactive steps to ensure well-paying jobs stay in our communities.”

From 2004 and 2012, California lost more than 16,000 film and TV industry jobs to other states, resulting in more than $1.5 billion in lost wages and economic activity, according to figures from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Since 2009, when the tax credit act was originally approved, it has prevented as many as 51,000 jobs from leaving California.
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Follow Arin Mikailian on Twitter: @ArinMikailian.

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