The Motion Picture Editors Guild likes a new bill introduced in Sacramento aimed at creating a tax-incentive program to keep post-production work in California, but it thinks the proposed legislation’s labor standards need to be toughened up to make sure that work ensures good jobs.
“Our members have spent decades building a system of fair wages and professional standards,” guild boss F. Hudson Miller said Monday at an event unveiling Assemblymember Nick Schultz’s bill, AB 2319. “Without clear labor protections, these credits could reward employers who undercut those standards, rather than reinforcing them.”
Officially announced last week at a town hall, the legislation from Schultz, who represents Burbank, envisions a stand-alone tax-credit program for editing, VFX, sound mixing and other post-production work — even if the initial project itself is made outside California.
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Unlike many lucrative incentives in other jurisdictions, especially internationally, post-production is not a beneficiary of the Golden State’s current $750 million annual tax-credits program if the small-screen or big-screen project is filmed elsewhere. The irony is, even with the remote potential for post-production work, a lot of it still traditionally actually ends up back in California regardless of where films and shows are shot. In the past few years, however, that tradition has begun to wane thanks in part to the meaty tax offerings in other states and countries.
“Without a targeted post-production incentive, California risks losing a critical segment of the entertainment industry supply chain, even when creative leadership remains based in the state,” Schultz, the former mayor of studio-packed Burbank, said today.
The move to put Assembly Bill 2319 in the Sacramento pipeline this session was kicked off with today’s presser in North Hollywood. Clearly the goal is to get the term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom — who has put a fair share of his own political capital and legacy on the line to get production back to the home of Hollywood — to sign the bill this fall (aka before he leaves office).
By labor protections, what the Editors Guild’s Miller meant today is clear and muscular terms that go beyond the incentives legislation’s “prevailing wage” language to make sure union members aren’t shut out by producers hoping to make a few extra bucks off potential post-production tax credits.
“We are grateful for the leadership shown on this issue and eager to work with lawmakers to get this right,” Miller added today, trying to strike a balance between moving the ball forward and scoring for his more than 7,000 members. “With the right structure, this legislation can help restore opportunity for thousands of skilled professionals and strengthen California’s creative economy.”
In that sense, Miller, like Schultz and Newsom and almost all the stakeholders in this process, is talking jobs, jobs, jobs — which has been the touchdown line for California’s film and TV tax incentives program since it was revised in 2014.