State appropriates $22 million for film incentives

by John P. Meyer

As reported, the Texas Film Incentive Program passed in both branches of the state legislature earlier this month. Now comes word from Texas Motion Picture Alliance President Hector Garcia that, on the tail end of the current legislative session, a) an associated appropriations bill has passed with $22 million in funding for the film incentive grants, and b) both the Speaker of the House and the Lt. Governor have signed the bill.

Governor Rick Perry leans to the right while flexing his signing hand.

This means that "full steam ahead" for the entire tax and financial incentive package awaits only the Governor's signature, and since he has been supportive of the initiative from the get-go, the chances of him doing anything to put the kibosh on the bill's implementation are next to nil.

Now comes the rest of the agenda for promoting film production in Texas, which will include selling the new program to interested parties (i.e., big bucks film production companies) and monitoring the results of the grants to make sure we're getting our money's worth - and to use any positive results to pull in additional funding and provisions.

Here are details about the provisions of the bill.