The Texas film industry is tired of sharing tax incentives with video games
Many states offer tax incentives to movie makers in order to draw a small piece of the film industry away from Hollywood, along with the prestige and economy boost that come with it. This was the main reason Breaking Bad was filmed in Albuquerque rather than in Riverside, California, as it was originally planned. The success of the show created a small tourism boom, with many people visiting locations from the TV series.
In Texas, the same tax incentives going to film makers also go to developers of video games as part of the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, something the Texan film industry is now trying to fight.
The incentive program gives out grants to companies that locally hire employees to work in film, television, and video game development, and the program has handed out a total of $52 million since 2013. Advocates of the film industry want video games to be placed on a separate tax incentive program, ostensibly so that film companies would get a bigger piece of the pie.
“Film is accustomed to and comfortable with fighting in the appropriation trenches,” film lobbyist Lawrence Collins told the Texas Tribune. “I think that’s a new concept for video games, and I understand why that bothers them.”
“We just think the program is working very well”
Proponents of the split argue that the film and video game industries operate on entirely different business models, and thus a separate incentive program makes sense. While members of the Texas video game industry are open to the idea of separate incentives, they argue that it is too late to consider for the current year.
“We just think it’s very late in the session,” said Tom Foulkes, vice president of state government affairs at the Entertainment Software Association. “There’s just about a month before the Legislature will consider the budget. We just think the program is working very well.”
The debates over splitting the incentives come at a time when their budget may be lowered in the coming year, with a recently proposed budget cutting the incentives by as much as 89 percent.
photo credit: Engagement Ring Luxury Tax Monopoly via photopin (license)
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