Jerry Brown and his Democrat buddies paid off their Hollywood donors, using $330 million of your money. The GOP’ers that supported this tax credit will tell us it was to keep jobs in California. That is like whistling past the graveyard. Those jobs are gone—due to unions, high taxes and government regulations. It would have made more sense to end the union monopoly and to change the regulations—cheaper and effective for all.

But, it is cheaper, even with the payoffs, to film in Canada, Bulgaria or Florida.

Here is how it works. The Hollywood billionaires donate tens of millions to Obama, Brown and Democrats nationwide. Then they need subsidies—so they go to Sacramento and the Sacramento Democrats give the tax dollars to the studios and productions companies, headed by the billionaire donors. Bottom-line is that your tax dollars are financing Democrat campaigns.

Governor approves deal on $330M film tax credit

Legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown meet as he approves a film tax credit deal for $330 million per year.

Allen Young, Sacramento Business Journal, 8/28/14

Gov. Jerry Brown has approved a deal to more than triple the size of the state of California’s film tax credit to $330 million per year, a move that’s widely thought to return movie work to California following years of flight to jurisdictions with larger tax incentives.

Representatives of northern California’s film industry immediately heralded news of the negotiation as a giant win.

“It’s going to be amazing because I am certain that we will land more jobs,” said Susannah Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission.

Assembly Bill 1839 would expand program eligibility to big-budget Hollywood movies and new network television dramas. The credits would be allocated to film companies based on the number of jobs created rather than the current lottery system. Funding would begin next fiscal year and run through 2018-19.

A key provision in the legislation is intended to reverse a trend of movies with stories that are based in San Francisco only filming in the actual city for a minimum number of days. The program would offer an additional 5 percent in tax breaks if production companies filmed outside of Los Angeles. The change may expand shoots in northern California from a week or less to more than two months.

“That’s a nice chunk of time for someone to be working,” said Robbins.

A quick snapshot of this summer’s filming season illustrates the trend.

San Andreas, a movie about the big one hitting San Francisco, shot in the city for nine days but then moved the bulk of its film production to Australia, which has no dollar cap on its tax credit program and offers films crews a 40 percent overall tax break.

Terminator Genisys, the fifth installment of the series, shot 18 days in San Francisco but was mostly filmed in Louisiana, which offers a 30 percent overall tax credit.

As far as local prospects, Sacramento film commissioner Lucy Steffens said the region features some “very diverse locations” for a city of its size, including two rivers and diverse downtown architecture.

“I certainly hope that we will bring more productions up to our area,” Steffens said.

Within the state Capitol, legislative leaders from both parties praised the agreement. A revamped film and television tax credit program will “put thousands of Californians to work,” said Gov. Jerry Brown in a statement.

The bill was approved by the Assembly in May and is expected to pass the Senate this week. It is opposed by two major school employee unions — the California Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association. State fiscal analysts consider the cost of the program as a hit to the state general fund; the future economic benefit is unknown.

The compromise reached on Wednesday reduced an earlier proposal for a $400 million program. The current cap is $100 million per year.

Assembly Bill 1839 is authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Los Angeles Democrat, and Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, a Pacoima Democrat.