After months of intensive deliberation and haggling, California’s State Assembly and Senate have passed a bill that significantly expands California’s film and television tax credit program and sent the proposed legislation to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
The bill, AB 1138, is poised to raise the state’s base credit rate for productions to 35 percent, with shoots relocating from other states and countries eligible for up to 40 percent. The legislation also expands the kinds of productions that are allowed to qualify to include animation, 20-minute television programs and large-scale competition series with budgets of at least $1 million.
The legislature’s approval comes just one day after the film and television tax credit program received a major cash boost, with Gov. Newsom signing into a law an allocation in the state budget to increase the program’s cap from $330 million to $750 million.
Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur of Hollywood, who spearheaded the bill in the Assembly, said the move represented “a comeback for workers, a comeback for small businesses, and a comeback for the beating heart of California’s creative economy.”
The passage comes just days before a July 7 application deadline for productions seeking to take advantage of California tax credits.
More to come.
