Texas Legislators See Red at TXMPA Lobby Day 2009
March 4th, 2009 by txactor
TXMPA Lobby Day 2009 was a long day that began with a 7:30 AM rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol.
What a sight! Hundreds of film industry professionals and business people who benefit from a thriving film industry, many dressed in red, answered the call of the TXMPA and showed up for lobby day.
According to the Bob Hudgins of the Texas Film Commission,
7000 film jobs and $500 million in film industry revenue have been lost in the state since 2003. That’s when states like Louisiana and New Mexico began their programs that aggressively court film producers with tax incentive programs. Louisiana and New Mexico have been offering incentive and/or rebate programs that amount to roughly 25% of a film’s expenditures if shot in their respective states. Michigan is now drawing productions with its 40% incentive.
In 2006 in a ‘better late than never’ reaction to the well documented downturn in Texas location filming, the Texas Motion Picture Alliance (TXMPA) was born. After securing lobby firm Hillco Parters, TXMPA led the way and Texas produced its own film incentive package in 2007.
Unfortunately that legislation, with a 5% incentive and a cap of $20 Million spread over two years, just wasn’t competitive with the other states’ programs. The 2007 bill did produce some dividends in commercial and video game production but the feature film work that was a primary target of the legislation did not materialize.
The classic example of the failure of the 2007 legislation to stem the tide of lost feature film production is Drew Barrymore’s film, WHIP IT!. That film story is set in Austin, Texas and was scheduled to shoot in Austin. But that was before the state of Michigan implemented their whopping 40% film incentive program. Suddenly Ann Arbor, Michigan started looking a lot like an acceptable substitute for Austin, Texas. Goodbye Texas, hello Michigan. Goodbye jobs, etc. etc.
During today’s Lobby Day I was on a team that visited with four different legislators. All were open to the new legislation and passage of the bill looks like a good possibility. However, passage of the bill is only the first step. The program goes through a separate process to receive funding. If the bill passes but is not funded, it would be a completely hollow ‘victory’.
Late in the day I sat in on a committee meeting for House Bill 873 and listened to testimony by people like director/writer Richard Linklater and producer/director Garry Brown (Prison Break).
Linklater told the committee that he has a $17Million film that is set in Texas and is ready to go. He wants to shoot in Texas but he may end up shooting in Shreveport, LA if Texas doesn’t get an improved film incentive package passed this session.
Similarly, Garry Brown, who was responsible for bringing PRISON BREAK to Dallas for its second and third seasons, offered the committee the insight of a producer who has shot many projects in Texas and wants to shoot more. In fact, Brown announced that he has a TV Pilot for Twentieth Century Fox that he wants to shoot in Dallas. Once again, the selection of a shooting location will be heavily influenced by tax incentives.
The new proposed legislation (HP 873 / SB 605) seeks an increase in funding from $20Million to $62Million and gives the Texas Film Commission office much greater flexibility in negotiating the incentive rate on a project by project basis.
The tact that supporters were urged to take with legislators was to underscore that this is not a giveaway bill but a job creation bill and a bill designed to let Texas once again compete with other states on a more level playing field. No rebate money is distributed until after production money has already been spent on in-state moving picture projects.
The progress of these bills (HB 873 / SB 605 ) through the legislative process over the next couple of months will tell the story of the future of the Texas film industry.
