The glitter is being tax right out of California.
Hollywood may be the poster child of the film industry, but don’t expect to see those famous twinkling lights glowing in the backdrop of a movie.
Blame it all on taxes and lack of tax incentives, industry officials say. There are just too few tax incentives in place to keep the movie making in Filmdom.
Paramount Studio Group President Randy Baumberger pointed out that few feature films are shot in the greater Los Angeles area.
The current tax incentive, which was enacted in 2009, consists of tax credits of $100 million per year for productions, which is less than what many other states offer. It is also not available to premium cable shows or commercials.
Industry officials are trying to draw feature film production back to California. Currently, films with budgets over $75 million don’t qualify for tax deductions. Officials would like to tweak that system to give large “tent pole” productions an incentive to film in California, but still keep some tax revenue.
The idea is catching heat from the California Federation of Labor and the California Teacher’s Association. They claim that tax cuts would hurt education. Proponents, on the other hand, claim that the entertainment industry will bring more jobs to the state, lifting the economy. What do you think?