California Senate easily passes $330 million Film and TV Job Creation and Retention Act

The California Senate easily passed the increase to the Film and TV Tax Credit Program under the Film and Television Job Creation and Retention Act.

The bill, which is now headed to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown for a signature, will boost the $100 million Film and TV Tax Credit Program to $330 million, Deadline reports. The legislation was passed 32 to 2, while six senators opted not to vote.

Sen. Kevin De Leon said the bill is meant to be a response to "states and other countries poaching tens of thousands of good California jobs." It has been estimated that the bill could help ramp up production in state five-fold.

"When it comes to fueling an engine of job creation with taxpayer dollars, 'good enough' isn't good enough anymore," De Leon explained to Deadline. "The biggest change the Senate Appropriations committee made to AB 1839 is we replaced the lottery with a jobs ration, a competitive evaluation based on the number of jobs created by the film production."

Gov. Brown is almost guaranteed to sign the amended legislation once it reaches him as he was the one who proudly announced it in the first place, but it was put together by Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra and Mike Gatto.

They originally had hoped to get the program increased to at least $400 million, but had to compromise down to the $330 million amount. The tax credit program will continue through the 2019-20 fiscal year, with the amended program kicking in next year.

The move from the state government couldn't have come any later as the California Film Commission estimated that the state has lost out on at least $2 billion over just the last four years.

image courtesy of Steve Levy/INFGoff.com