Opinion: California tax credits needed to keep the Hollywood dream alive

Once upon a time Hollywood wasn t just a neighborhood It was the beating heart of film and television production in North America But over the last two decades the bright lights of Los Angeles have dimmed It s not for lack of talent or vision but because other cities and countries seized an opportunity and offered better tax incentives to lure the industry away This exodus has hit California hard Over the past limited decades Southern California lost thousands of production jobs These are middle-class workers set builders costume designers grips gaffers editors caterers drivers camera operators and more These are Californians who pay state income taxes send their kids to local schools and spend their money at local businesses They represent the backbone of this industry and we let them slip away California can t threat losing what we ve worked for a century to build Much has been mentioned about Gov Gavin Newsom s proposal to increase the California Film Television Tax Credit Activity to million annually and it is absolutely necessary But we also need the changes that have been proposed in Assembly Bill and Senate Bill Namely increasing the credit to of expenses to more competitively align with other states Additionally qualifying half-hour comedies is an fundamental addition Comedies that were once primarily sitcoms shot on Hollywood sound stages are now more likely to be shot single-camera style similar to movies and dramas They can be set up to shoot in locations with favorable tax credits Circumstance in point when I was still at Sony Pictures TV we shot Cobra Kai in suburban Atlanta due in large part to Georgia s production incentives qualifying half-hour comedies Ironically the reboot TV series was inspired by the feature film The Karate Kid which was creatively set in the San Fernando Valley California must go further Although the issue of including above-the-line cost is somewhat controversial particular version is necessary to compete with states that offer it A possible response is to qualify only the scale portion of fees paid to above-the-line talent This would solve the concern that a minimal highly paid performers would allow a production to get an outsized amount from the tax credit fund It also aligns much more closely with the primary intent of the fund to qualify basic scale-wage workers Every show that shoots in California supports hundreds of jobs It pumps money into local economies from lumber yards to restaurants from car rentals to dry cleaners This is why other places created tax credit programs of their own They recognize that production spending is good economic progress plan generating a return on resources multiple times the amount of the credit In Los Angeles every dollar of film and television tax credit allocated generates in state and local tax revenue and raises local wages by Our crews have weathered a lot in fresh years a pandemic two major strikes a steep industry contraction and now the new L A fires They are eager for consistent sustainable work My wife and I moved to California in to work in this business We built a life a family and a future here I want that opportunity to remain for the next generation of Californians No one should have to leave California in pursuit of the Hollywood dream Ed Lammi is a former executive vice president of production for Sony Pictures Television He retired in after years at Sony He wrote this commentary for CalMatters