Deep into a months-long process to overhaul California’s entertainment tax incentive program, a group of producers, labor leaders and lawmakers joined WrapPRO’s exclusive roundtable to go inside the work being done to save the Golden State’s struggling production industry.
With television production in Los Angeles down 58% from its 2021 peak, state legislators are working with Gov. Gavin Newsom on plans to raise the cap of the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program from $330 million to $750 million while greatly expanding the types of productions that can apply. Among those legislators is Hollywood Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, who spoke about the urgency of protecting a cornerstone of California’s economy.
“We’ve got to convince legislators in other parts of the state that this is important for the entire state of California, and this is important to the working people of California,” he said during the roundtable that streamed Thursday on LinkedIn and YouTube. “When we actually tell the story, we show them statistics, we help them understand how really the industry here is facing what I’ve called Depression-era levels of unemployment. When they understand that, we actually bring people around.”
Zbur was joined by the head of the California Film Commission, Colleen Bell; Producers Guild of America CEO Susan Sprung; Directors Guild of America’s Western Executive Director Rebecca Rhine; and writer-producer and Stay in LA member Noelle Stehman.
During the panel, Stehman recounted how the Stay in LA campaign rapidly mobilized in the wake of the January Palisades and Eaton wildfires and read some of the sobering stories shared by entertainment workers about how the unrelenting impact of the fires, the pandemic and the 2023 strikes have left them struggling to make ends meet.
“We are a boutique post-production sound house. Seeing businesses leave the state and country in search of the cheapest option, and at such an alarming rate, has been really tragic,” read one of the anecdotes shared by Stehman. “We typically employ 40-plus people at any given time, and right now we have a staff of less than 10. It’s heartbreaking. These are human beings we have had to lay off.”
There are few quick fixes. Even if the tax credit program expansion is approved this summer, it won’t be until 2026 that its full impact will begin to be felt by workers seeking employment.
But Sprung says there are other measures that can be done to reduce permitting costs and other expenses that make it pricier to shoot in California compared to other states, something that the Los Angeles City Council is exploring with a motion requiring local agencies to report back on ways to cut permitting fees.
“The biggest thing is that people need certainty. They need to understand whether they’re getting the tax credit and, once they receive it, what all their costs and expenses are. It all needs to be laid out for them as clearly as possible,” she said. “And then I think the other thing that’s really important is to make sure that all of the local agencies around the state are just helping to facilitate and making the process as smooth and easy as possible.”
Watch the full interview in the video above.
The post Hollywood Insiders Say ‘Depression-Era Level’ Production Crisis Makes State Incentives Urgent | Exclusive Video appeared first on TheWrap.