The Louisiana State Senate has voted to restore the state’s film and TV tax credit program after the State Assembly voted to sunset it last week, albeit with a lower cap.
On Sunday, hundreds of film workers filled the halls of the State Capitol in Baton Rouge urging legislators not to phase out the program. On Tuesday, the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee voted to amend the tax package approved by the House of Representatives to restore the incentives.
But changes were also put in place by the committee, including lowering the program’s cap from $150 million to $125 million. The committee also voted to make the tax credits for all incentive programs non-refundable, meaning that producers can no longer get cash back on credits that exceed their productions’ tax liability.
The full tax package must be voted on by the entire Senate before returning to the House for reconciliation votes.
The vote was done as part of a special session called by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to overhaul the state’s finances by eliminating all of the state’s tax incentive programs and replacing them with a 5.5% corporate tax rate — down from 7.5% — and a 3% personal income tax rate.
The state’s production board Film Louisiana has rallied industry workers to contact legislators and attend committee meetings to preserve the film tax incentive, arguing that it is necessary to preserve the 10,000 jobs and $1 billion in annual economic activity that film and TV shoots bring to the Bayou State. Recent productions shot in the state include the Netflix thriller “Rebel Ridge” and Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
According to the Louisiana Illuminator, Film Louisiana head Jason Waggenspack was joined at Sunday’s committee hearing by hundreds of IATSE-affiliated crew workers and business owners who provide services for film sets, all of them wearing stickers that read “Film = Jobs.”
“Please, don’t forget the jobs that are here,” said Dolph Federico, who runs the event production company Pelican Events. “Take care of the people who are here first and then worry about the rest of it. I got no place else to go, guys.”
