California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the state’s new budget into law on Monday, including an extension to the California Film and TV Tax Credit Program that lasts through 2030.
“California’s iconic entertainment industry drives economic growth in communities all across our state,” Newsom said in a statement. “Over the past years, our Film and Television Tax Credit Program has helped create thousands of good paying jobs, relocated productions to California, and brought billions in new investment to our state. Through the extension of the program, we’ll continue this growth, protect jobs, and push for progress on diversity so workers better represent communities throughout our state.”
As part of this fourth iteration of the program, tax credits given to qualifying productions will now be refundable, meaning that if a production receives more tax credits than what it owes in taxes, the state will pay the difference to the studio.
The change means that the Golden State joins other major production states like Georgia in offering refundable credits, opening itself to streamers like Netflix that had largely ignored the California program as it did not have tax liability in the state and could not benefit from the credits.
A diversity requirement was included in the program, requiring studios to show that a production made good faith efforts to hire a workforce “broadly reflective” of California’s race, gender and disability demographics to receive a 4% portion of its allocated tax credit.
“Today’s fantastic news regarding California’s Film and TV Tax Credit Program is a testament to Governor Newsom’s leadership and the Legislature’s commitment to the industry,” said California Film Commission Executive Director Colleen Bell. “For more than a century, our unmatched crews, talent, infrastructure and locations have made California the world’s entertainment capital. The extension of our tax credit program will strengthen our global competitiveness and deliver significant, long-term value to California’s economic future.”
The tax credit program will create a pilot program on production safety, requiring productions that receive a tax credit to hire an independent safety adviser to make preproduction risk assessments and to oversee the production process to ensure adherence to safety protocols, including new ones implemented by the program that include mandatory guidelines on firearms and ammo, as well as training requirements and standards for armorers.
The pilot program will be used as a basis for similar ones in New York and Georgia developed by the Directors Guild of America as part of its recently ratified labor contract.
