Report finds benefit to film tax credits

Assemblymen Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake) and Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima) responded this week to a report about the state’s filming industry that suggests new tax incentives might help keep movie and television studios shooting in California.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office found that each job directly created by the movie industry in California generates 2.7 indirect jobs, resulting in the addition of hundreds of thousands of new positions.

Also, the report found that for every dollar spent, there is a dollar-for-dollar return to state and local governments.

Bocanegra and Gatto are the authors of the proposed AB 1839, a bill aimed at boosting state tax credits for movie companies as a method to keep them filming in California instead of other parts of the country.

“(The report) states that it’s reasonable to continue and expand the program and that the program pays for itself in state and local taxes, even without considering the revenue generated by tourism and other related industries,” Bocanegra and Gatto said in a joint statement.

AB 1839 is currently awaiting a vote in the assembly’s Revenue and Taxation Committee.

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Follow Arin Mikailian on Twitter: @ArinMikailian.

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