Catherwood LibraryILR School

The California Assembly passed legislation yesterday that, if passed by the state senate as written and approved by Governor Gray Davis, will offer tax cuts to smaller movie and television productions as an incentive to remain in California. The fifteen percent credit against state wage taxes is an attempt to stem the outflow of productions to Canada that cost California 18,000 film and television industry jobs---twelve percent of the employment in these industries statewide---last year alone. The proposed credit applies to productions with at least half of production in state and wage costs between $200,000 and $10 million, and is California?s answer to the lower labor costs and government subsidies that have caused many small scale productions to move to Canada in recent years (see WIT for Dec. 5, 2002).