Panel endorses film incentives

A legislative task force has endorsed a bill designed to boost film and television work in Utah, but the measure still needs a little post-production tweaking.

The Motion Picture Task Force on Thursday passed out a bill that would create a $3 million annual fund to provide financial incentives to companies producing TV series, made-for-TV movies or motion pictures in Utah.

Two-thirds of the money would be used for incentives for in-state production of series and made-for-TV movies. One-third would be for in-state movie production — both features and independent films.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development would administer the fund and could give preference to productions that are shot in rural areas of the state or recognize that the work was done in Utah or has "Utah as Utah" in the story line.

At the task force's final meeting Thursday, much of the discussion focused on the details of how much flexibility the department would have with the funds and the amounts of funding limits for individual productions. The task force opted not to include TV commercials in the bill.

A subcommittee of the task force will work out a few details in the bill language before it is presented to the Tax Review Commission and the Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Interim Committee.

"We still have some loose ends of this bill, but I'm confident they can be worked out," said Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, task force co-chairwoman.

The current draft calls for the funding to be in place beginning July 1, 2005. The task force also adopted a resolution calling for funding from the state Industrial Assistance Fund to bridge the gap next spring between an existing demonstration incentive program and the start of the new, ongoing incentive fund.

Allen has cautioned that the new incentive may be a tough sell to the full Legislature and repeated that on Thursday.

"This is going to take a lot of work. . . . I have seen when necessary from the film industry some great lobbying efforts. This is going to take the biggest lobbying effort you have ever seen. Funding always does," she said.

Presented to members but not discussed Thursday was information indicating that the $1 million demonstration program — funded through the state Industrial Assistance Fund and involving tax rebates — is projecting a return on the state's investment of about $4.50 in new state tax revenues for every dollar provided.

The DCED had received eight applications during the program and approved incentives for five. The demo program also resulted in the creation of 569 project-specific jobs at a cost of $1,757 per job.

But, as state officials had indicated earlier, the demo program failed to land applications for TV series or for a major movie.

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