California Lawmakers Call On Experts To Help Weigh Newsom’s Expanded Film & TV Tax Credit Proposal: “A Serious Fiscal Matter”

deadline.com:

As California lawmakers eye solutions to the state’s declining film and television production, the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Wednesday weighed Gov.

Gavin Newsom‘s proposal to allocate $750M annually to the Film and Television Tax Credit Program in hopes of revitalizing the industry.

The subcommittee welcomed three panels of economists, industry leaders and other experts who spoke to the pros and cons of increasing the tax incentive from its current cap of $330M annually as part of a broader proposal, laid out in a pair of bills introduced in February, to staunch the bleeding of a years-long mass exodus of domestic production.

Some state lawmakers are hoping the program’s revamp will breathe some much-needed life into California’s once bustling film and television industry, while others expressed some skepticism over whether more than doubling the incentive cap is the most productive use of those funds within the state budget. “The amount of the tax credit is basically exactly the same amount as the amount the governor is proposing to cut [from] the University of California and the California State University.