House committee endorses bill to increase tax credits for filmmakers
With BC-CNS-Film Tax Credits-Box
By JAMES KING
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (Wednesday, March 4) _ Why wasn’t “3:10 to Yuma” filmed in Yuma? Because New Mexico offered better tax incentives to film there, an executive with a Paradise Valley production company says.
“Arizona is a place that stars in Hollywood want to go. They vacation here,” said Bradley Yonover, a partner with DDB Ventures. “Albuquerque is not a great place to spend three months.”
The answer, Yonover and others say, is boosting a state program that offers tax incentives for productions filmed in Arizona.
Yonover was at the State Capitol on Wednesday as a House committee endorsed a bill that would raise the annual cap on tax credits production companies can receive from $60 million to $100 million.
HB 2611, sponsored by Rep. Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, also would reduce the percentage of Arizona residents required to participate in productions from 50 percent to 25 percent.
Mike Williams, a representative of DDB Ventures, told House Commerce Committee that Arizona’s forests, deserts and urban areas offer great locations for filming, but the state can’t compete effectively when other states offer better tax incentives.
“Our system is flawed,” he said. “New Mexico’s model is the best model in terms of providing incentives to producers, so they’re getting a lot of the movies that Arizona should be competing for.”
The committee endorsed the bill on a 4-2 vote, sending it to the Ways and Means Committee.
The Motion Picture Production Tax Incentive Program, which determines tax incentives for production companies, was established in 2005 and falls under the authority of the Arizona Department of Commerce. It allows production companies up to $8 million in tax credits per movie.
Besides raising the total annual tax credits available, Weiers’ bill would create the Arizona Film Office Advisory Council, a 10-member group appointed by the governor that would oversee the tax-incentive program.
Reps. Rich Crandall, R- Mesa, and Laurin Hendrix, R-Gilbert, voted against the bill. Crandall said the committee didn’t have sufficient data to make a decision, but he didn’t rule out the idea completely.
“It seems to me like a movie will bring in a lot of jobs for a few months, but where are those jobs when the movie is done filming?” Crandall said.
Yonover said producers and celebrities he knows would love to work more in Arizona but the major studios want experienced filmmakers, something Arizona has in short supply.
“There are great film schools here; the problem is that people get the training at those schools but the students leave because there is no business here,” he said.
Yonover said Arizona has tremendous potential as a destination for filmmakers if the state can lure them with tax incentives.
“Everyone I have spoken to in the film business wonders why Arizona hasn’t developed a film industry,” he said. “There are different landscapes, it’s always sunny, which is something pretty important to directors.”